Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

And we’re off.

And off to a great start. We had planned to cover 300 miles today. In the end, we did 364: Chappaqua to Clarion, PA.

But more about that in a moment.

Joseph and I departed from the El Dorado diner on Route 9 just south of the Tappan Zee bridge at about 9:15 AM. (Laurel, Katie, and Juliana were there to see us off, and to snap some pictures.) We pulled into the parking lot of the Clarion, PA Hampton Inn at about 7:15 PM. Along the way we tangled with tractor trailers, the wind, and the sun, but also had an interesting side trip and some compelling conversations with strangers.

Route 80 runs for 310 miles across Pennsylvania. We rode the first 250 miles of it. Add what we did in New Jersey and New York, and we covered 360+ miles (The average speed of 36 mph may be confusing; we stopped a few times for basic necessities. At one point we were cruising steadily at 80. Apparently I have trouble differentiating between the speed limit sign and the name of the highway…)

The route: Over the Tappan Zee Bridge, on the NYS Thruway West to Suffern, Interstate 287 South to Morristown; Route 80 West through New Jersey and through Pennsylvania, till we stopped just 60 miles short of the Ohio line.

We had some interesting encounters, beginning at the diner when, after some identity-establishing conversation, a member of the Hells Angels (sic) chapter close to home invited Joseph to their next poker run. And in a WaWa mini-mart near Allentown a local suggested that we take a 5 mile detour to see a dam in the mountains that “isn’t on any map.” We did, and it was worth it. We did manage to do some mischief while there.

Attached, a slide show of some of the sights along the way.

done

More tomorrow.

Stay safe.

Vroom,

Fred