Fair bit of rain overnight and a drop in temp, thank goodness, it was still raining lightly when we left Arlington at 0900 hrs to do a couple hours of State hopping on our way to Gettysburg, only about 200 kms away.

We left Arlington west on the 267 towards Leesburg, ducked across to Clarke’s Gap and headed over route 9 thru Hillsboro gap and over the summit of Keyes Gap to be greated by awesome views out over West.Virginia. Down the long slope on the other side, crossing the Shenandoah river into West.Virginia to our coffee stop in Charlestown. It was pretty cool cruising down the hill and crossing the Shenandoah into WV as this is the sort of country we came here to ride. Felt good.

Jumping on Route 340 after coffee, wet weather gear now discarded and stored away, we crossed the Shenandoah back into Virginia for about a kilometer before Route 340 crossed the Potomac putting us into Maryland, quickest ever visit into and out of a state you could make in the USA I reckon. Toward Fredericksburg we changed over to Route 15 North and just north of Emmitsville we were back into Pennsylvania to arrive a short time later in Gettysburg.

While the ladies did some retail therapy at an outlet ‘village’, Horse, Red and I popped down to the Gettysburg Battle museum and visitor center and got the lay of the land for the auto tour of the battlefield park tomorrow. An easy day for sure with perfect riding conditions, temps didn’t get above 25 all day, outstanding.

Despite the weather lady saying the temps were going to calm down on Monday, it dawned pretty hot again with high humidity. The tour guys were turning up at 10.00 am with the air conditioned coach to give all 8 of us a private tour, the air con vehicle was a god send.

Gil, from Private Tours of Washington, our tour guide, had been in the job for 10 years, was a 7th generation native Washingtonian, had done his history major at Uni in DC and man was he a wealth of knowledge, what he didn,t know about the history of DC and it’s founding fathers wasn’t worth knowing, a simply brilliant tour.

We started off right across the road from the Hotel with the IwoJima monument, followed by a tour of the Arlington National cemetery, which included JFK’s gravesite and the eternal flame, changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier. Those guys are in full uniform jacketed up in 40 plus degrees, impressive.

It was so hot we got through a fair bit of water and were diving for shade under the trees at every opportunity we were not in the air conditioning van.

General Lee,s original residence before the Union confiscated it when he changed camp to command the Northern Virginia army with the Confederates.

Next on the agenda was the Lincoln memorial and the Washington monument, once again Gil was a fountain of knowledge. After lunch it was the US Marine Corp memorial and the Vietnam Veterans wall, White House and Capitol Hill. We were impressed with DC as a very clean and tidy city with lots of trees to keep it green. It is a very impressive city with so much to see, no way it can be done in one day, but the taste we had was great. Suffice to say it is a fly in and uba city rather than one to target on a motorcycle.!! A couple or three days would be needed to give DC a good going over to cover the various museums and Smithsonian. Worth the visit for sure.

The private tour was money well spent and made the hop on hop off bus tours in other cities look like amateur hour.

Let’s just say today’s ride doesn’t rate as even justifying some commentary. The predicted hottest day on record for the north east for the last few years was well and truly that, we hit 47 degrees in the afternoon just before arriving.

Those sort of temperatures are not conducive to pleasant motorcycle riding in Washington DC Sunday afternoon traffic. Enough said.

We called in at the Harley Davidson Factory in York, Pennsylvania on the way through but not open on Sundays so not even a browse through the shop. It’s a massive complex, like several rugby fields and Harley own the park of several hundred acres is is set on. pretty impressive.

Thats about all that impressed in York, Pennsylvania, just saying.

DC accommodation prices were a tad on the high side so we opted for a Motel in a suburb of Arlington called Roslyn. Arlington of course, being just across the river from DC. The Motel, the Red Lion, is Just across the road from the Arlington National Cemetery in fact. When we popped around the corner to the supermarket it appears this is rather a ritzy wee suburb of residential apartments that I suspect cost a lot of money to buy or rent. very up market.

Tommorrow we have arranged a rather pricey private tour of the sights of DC with a company that takes all eight of us in an air conditioned van, that does it for me. Even though the temps are supposed to get back to normal from Monday, the reviews on all the hop on hop off buses were rubbish, shades of our New York experience with lots of walking and no bloody buses coming back to pick you up came to mind. With record high temps in the country that option was off the table pretty quick. Will report back on how the tour goes. Janelle has spent quite a bit of time reviewing the private tour outfits and slashing and burning to the best reviewed companies, so fingers crossed. Hope they know where the good coffee stops are.

From a motorcycling perspective, us Kiwi’s are pretty lucky with such great roads to ride in any town we live in. The poor old Harley riders in this part of the country have wee pockets of nice riding here and there with miles and miles of crappy interstate riding to those wee pockets and home again. The American dream eh?

When we leave Washington DC we are into rural Pennsylvania and then on the Blue Ridge Mountains , Shenandoah Mountains and the Smokey Mountains for the next almost three weeks so hoping for some great riding in those areas.

Pic below is looking down the street from the supermarket around the corner in Roslyn, Arlington.

Today was just another one of those a to b rides where there was no great rides but we just had to get to East Stroudsburg, the meeting point where we catch up with Mark and Tracey riding across from Newark.

rather than take the interstate all the way we thought we would break it up with a ride across the PA 118, pretty much from Hughesville to Dallas. This turned out to be a pleasant break from interstate riding, sneaking across below the base of Ricketss Glen state park.

Getting toward Dallas, Horse was getting scratchie for a coffee and he and Marie spotted a wee coffee sign on a building at the same time, in a wee village called Lehman on the 118.

Inside the Lehman Mercantile, we met the owner Janelle Hines. Jeanelle took a while to pick up on our accent but then made us the nicest espresso coffee we have consumed for a while. A lovely lady, she gave us a bit of local history, how her and hubby had restored the old grocery store and turned it into the treasure it is today. They live on a wee farm across the road and she has a soft spot for injured animals that she nurses back to health. The Lehman Mercantile was full of treasures and a a great shop to look around in. Anyone travelling across the 118, will do themselves a dis- service by not stopping here for a coffee and a yarn with Jeanelle.

The rest of the trip after Lehman was a bit more built up and the temp started climbing, hitting a high of 38 degrees just after we arrived in East Stroudsburg.

Mark and Tracey had arrived about half an hour earlier and had a good run across from Newark, apart from getting held up closer to Stroudsburg by an accident. It wa s great to see them and up the team size to four bikes 8 up.

Tommorrow is Sunday, so hoping the traffic down to DC might not be too heinous, and it’s also the last day of the sizzling hot weather alert, its supposed to ease off next week. Fingers crossed as it was too hot for comfort today.

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.

The ride today was nothing to write home about, it was simply get on the road and get to our destination, Niagara Falls. It was only a 3 hr ride from Elmira/Horseheads so we were there before lunch, dodged the forecast rain and the threatened heat wave hasn,t kicked in yet.

We stowed our gear at the Hotel and walked into the Niagara Falls park, looked at the Falls on the American side first then across the bridge onto goat island to look at the more impressive horseshoe falls which are actually in Canada.

Lotsa tourists of course but it was more impressive than I thought once you were in front of them, lotta water going over all the falls for sure. Easy to spend several hrs wandering around the State Park. We are staying at the Comfort Hotel, the Pointe, so right beside the falls, no need to ride anywhere.

Later on we dined at the Casino. I hate Casino’s with a passion, but the troops had sussed out you just had to “sign up” to their social club and you got a voucher for the buffet meal, which was outstanding. All it cost was the tip for the waitress.

Down into Pennsylvania tommorrow..

Yes, that’s right, if there is a town called Horseheads between Goshen and Niagara Falls , it is encumbent on the team to stay there given the nickname of one of our team, yes?

We had a look at the forecast for the day, rain was forecast and at Hancock, the rain was forecast from 8.00 am so we were expecting rain as we left Goshen.

We decided to take the 17west down to Port Jervis rather than the interstate, turned out to be a good choice, the 17 West is a very new smooth road surface with barely a car on it as they all take the Interstate, what a great ride.

From Port Jervis to Hancock on Route 97 its about 110 km on a road named the Upper Delaware scenic byway, which as you would imagine, hugs the Delaware all the way to Hancock. This is a must do ride in NY state and could be made a round trip if a rider was to loop back down the Pennsylvania side to make a day of it. This is a great ride, great scenery, smooth road surface and barely a vehicle on the entire 110 kms. Awesome. Humidity held at bay by riding on the river as well. The road climbs all the way, as it would following a river upstream!! and tops out at about 1850’ above sea level.’

Stayed fine and temp in the mid 20’s all the way. That pic below of us entering a wee town on a slope is a town called Callicoon about 30 mile south of Hancock. Maybe the size of Manaia let’s say and some old buildings, maybe an old gold mining town, we weren’t there long, one coffee shop and closed on a Wednesday. A local told us they open when they feel like it ! Great to have a business like that eh. Mounted up and rode on up to Hancock.

We stopped for coffee at Hancock and then hit the 17 West, and although now a larger four laner, it continued to follow first the Delaware then later the Susquehanna river up through Binghamton as we continued northwest. Rain clouds threatened west of Elmira and we got a wee brief shower on us, but the road was sweeping north so we dodged a bullet and snuck around the edge of the rain, arriving at the Quality Hotel at Horseheads, still dry.

Checked in and half an hour later it bucketed down for a couple of hours, good timing. Off to Niagara Falls tommorrow to do the tourist thing, as you do.

The planned route for today had been a bit of a fill in day, heading down the Hudson more or less, to do a drive by West Point Military Academy, then around the side of Bear Mountain Park before heading to Goshen for the night. This would have put us dangerously close to NYC again and that traffic congestion we so love. Horse had been talking to a couple locals at Kingston however, who said we have to have a ride around the Ashokan reservoir, just inland from Kingston and in fact back in the Catskills. This is one of the three large reservoirs that feed New York cities water supply. We decided this looked like more peaceful riding, so had a lazy day of less than 150 kms doing a bit of a loop around the bottom and end of the reservoir and across the middle, before heading down Ulster County Route 3 toward Goshen.

Had to brake for a couple bambi’s up by the reservoir, Corina saw a bear as well trotting along in the woods. Braking for deer right on the roadside certainly is a motivator to stick to the rather slow speed limits!!

We have posted some pics of the reservoir ride, route 3 was a treasure as well, new road surface and through some quaint wee towns, most with Indian names like Kerhonkson, Wawarsing, Napanoch

Arriving at Goshen, Red and Corina went to post a parcel to Kiwi shipping and saw a hind and couple fawns grazing on someone’s residential lawn opposite some forest. Seemed pretty used to traffic…………..Only in America.

Moving along to accommodation, we are learning the hard way to pay more attention to what we ask, for instance, do you have a pool ? answer yes, but we forgot to ask if it had water in it, as the pool “ temporarily closed for the summer” has in fact been filled with gravel and Will never again have water in it ( last town). Also the question, “ do you have a guest bbq?” Means we must sight it BEFORE we buy sausages to cook on the bbq for the evening meal, as this place answered yes, but overlooked to tell us it was not gas, that we would have to smash up some pellets out the back to burn wood on it after going to the servo for some matches as they have none at reception.

Ask every minute detail we are learning the hard way.

Mark Batty and Tracey Boot have swapped coasts now, having left San Fran and arrived for a few days in NYC, before riding out to meet us at East Stroudsberg.

Situated 91 miles up the Hudson River from New York City at the confluence of Rondout creek, Kingston is a town of about 24,000 people and steeped in history. Back before the war of independence, we are talking about 1777, Kingston was the capital city of New York State under British rule. When the British were getting their arses kicked in the War of Independence they sacked the town and pretty much burnt it to the ground. It was rebuilt, but some of the old stone buildings here predate that war, pretty cool history. The town has two historic sections, the uptown historic district and the “Strand” or the old port historic district down on Rondout creek which is pretty much a Marina now. Ian Ferguson, you would be impressed by all the slutty boats down here.

Up town, there is one corner, funnily enough called “the four corners” where all four stone buildings on each of those corners pre date the war of Independence, fascinating history.

This is a really cool town, to top it off, for a bloke who likes reading, one of these four stone buildings houses a cafe/bar/book shop and what a cool place this is, it’s called the Rough Draft bar and books, posted some pics. What a great concept.

When you google things to do in New York City, a wee drive up to Kingston for a look round the historic district is even a suggestion. There ya go.

Good having a day off with no ride.

Stunning weather today with early morning temps mid twenties to a high of a bout 32 late afternoon. Has to be another one of our top riding days doing a circuit of Catskills Park, New York States primo tourist area and the spot they go for skiing in the winter.

I have to say, if any out of State ( or kiwi) riders are following this blog and are passing through NY state with a day up their sleeves, the ride we are posting today is a must do, this is a very picturesque and relaxing ride in some real cool country.

From last nights stay at Albany we had about 50 kms of interstate to get down to the Catskills, then pretty much headed west on Route 23A to enter Catskills Park on the well used “Mountain Cloves scenic byway” behind lots of cars and a bus. Initially we thought, oh no, Sunday drivers, this is the worst day to hit the Catskills, so we stopped at Tannersville for a caffeine injection to boost the tolerances for Sunday drivers. That pic of us parked in the village is Tannersville, a wee town with lots of Character. Marie’s head swelled as we cruised through Hunter, the next village and past Hunter Mountain, coincidently where they invented the snow making machine. Hunter Mountain is a glorified hill from Kiwi standards but man, it had some insane looking steep ski runs, not for the faint hearted I would think.

Once we were west of Tannersville, traffic seemed to disappear. We have noticed the USA folk love going out for brunch Saturday and Sunday so Tannersville must be their destination and that’s where the traffic ended. Awesome.

We followed the 23A as far west as Lexington, traffic down to nothing now so all good, then we took the 42 south over Deep Notch and down to Shandaken. Turned right briefly on on 28W, then very careful to catch the next road as it is not well sign posted and could be mistaken for a minor side road. Hung a left just past Big Indian onto Oliverei road, or Route 47 south. This is a narrower road closed in by trees and what an awesome motorcycle road, couple of pics of the 47 south posted below.

This has to be my pic of the better gently weaving motorcycle roads in the Catskills and although the speed limit is a bit lower, you can,t ride any quicker than the speed limit, more bikes than cars on this road, so the locals must also rate it as a good ride. It covers some 33 kilometers of superb riding from Big Indian through to Claryville.

From Claryville, we rode through to Grahamsville and just east of Grahamsville, hung a left on the 55A, Sundown road. This has to be the second best motorcycle road in the Catskills. narrower still than the Oliverei Road and a much rougher road surface, but through some gorgeous country with all the Carparks and hiking trails chocker full of cars, so again, popular with the locals. That pic of us stopping for lunch on the side of the road is somewhere in the middle of the Sundown Road.

Sundown road covers another 37 kms of slow but outstanding riding from Grahamsville through to West Shogan/Boiceville and is a must do ride in the Catskills.

At Boiceville , we took the 28 through to Phoenicia. Phoenicia is a cute as village but was packed to the gunnels with cars and motorcycles so we didn’t, bother stopping, took the 214 North over Stony Clove Notch and down the other side back to the 28, through Hunter and Tannersville where we had started off. A short ride down the interstate to Kingston was followed by a brief check in at the Rodeway Inn. This brief visit has now, coupled with some recent experiences at other Rodeway Inns, resulted in a team decision that Rodeway Inns are dead to us for the next 180 plus room nights remaining on the trip……

We repacked and moved down the road to something a tad more acceptable. I don,t know what type of people own these Rodeway Inns, the reception staff and managers are usually very obliging and nice to deal with and often embarrassed at what they are checking us in to, the owners are clearly absentee and just rape cash from these motels and put nothing back into maintenance and improvements. The state of the buildings must be an embarrassment to the Choice Hotel chain in many cases. When we go back to reception less than impressed with what we have been checked into, it is met with resignation, like it happens frequently. Some of the owners need to lift their game, don’t know how they survive. Three years ago on the West coast/ Rockies trip, we did not encounter the same problem with Rodeway Inns, maybe it’s an East Coast, West coast thing? Dunno.

Having had that bleet, moving right along to fellow riders, we met some US riders doing a bit of a roadie staying at the same hotel as us. Very interesting to talk to and these guys are looking at their next adventure being an off road east to west across some of the US and were asking about the Beemers and Triumphs. Horse got in first and tried to talk up the Triumph of course, actually for the off road trip they are talking about, the 800 Triumph or BMW would be better than the big bikes more than likely. Good value getting some good ride tips from these guys. We also met a couple and another Triumph rider down at the Kingston Plaza when we were stocking up on rehydration material. Chatting to them for ages, again great to catch up on the motorcycling exploits and local ride tips from local residents. We continue to enjoy chatting to local motorcycle enthusiasts.

Moving to the other coast, Mark and Tracey have been hitting the tourist spots in San Fran and met some fellow motorcycle tourers at Pier 39. Now these guys were touring from Mexico to Alaska. Horse is waaaaaay to late trying to talk up the Triumph 800 XCA with these savvy, well researched, astute, sharp as a tack, riders. I have posted a pic Mark sent me of the bikes they have chosen for this epic adventure they are in the middle of. All I can see are BMW’s in that photo, goes without saying………… not sure if there were any other makes out of shot somewhere, Mark would have been completely unbiased in his photo shoot I am confident, so if there was another brand somewhere stage left, I am sure he would have taken a supplementary photo? Eh Mark? I must admit though, there seem to be a lot more GS’s in the western states than over here on the East coast, she’s Harley country over here through and through. The Harley’s are great for the US economy though, there is a Harley shop in every town, no idea why the economy needs so many Harley shops? Is it for servicing needs, oil leaks, new belts? Not sure? Maybe I will need to research this and post the result of my research on a blog further down the track? Now there’s a project to keep me occupied on the odd day off.

Eggs over easy for breakfast in the morning.