Adventures By Guy

Couldn’t believe DALLAS WON LAST NIGHT thought for sure they would perform the Jerry Jones curse and lose.
We were up and packing the bikes for the day and it was still very dark due to heavy low clouds at 7 am. Temperature was in the low 40’s. After all the rain yesterday, it wasn’t just Jared’s bike that was dirty as all the bikes were trashed and anywhere you touched them you would pick up gritty sand/mud. Mike headed for a carwash, and we sprayed them down. They were looking pretty again, and Mike made a comment on how much dirt was washing down the concrete as we sprayed them. Yep, we sure added to some Delta downstream of us! With that done we headed out of town and planned on gassing up 25 miles south where we left off yesterday. After we gassed up it became a game of Follow-the-Leader as Mike took us down this wonderful winding road that had smooth pavement. I have learned that the African Twin can really perform and corner… as long as you keep the RPMs at 4,000 or above. It didn’t seem to mind, and I sure didn’t mind as I just concentrated on cornering, having fun and not shifting. 6th gear is mostly used like an Over Drive on the hwy or a straight country road when you are over 55 to 60 mph. Unfortunately, Mike stopped and turned onto a slimy gravel road while that undulating sinuous road continued around a corner and was beckoning me to continue down it… but I followed Mike. 20 feet into that muddy road it turned into a wonderland of tall pines and deciduous trees that were turning colors. The canopy was high and a rolling stream was to our right. I guess the best way to describe it is how my 5 yr old grand daughter would describe it… “Wow, it looks like the land of the fairies!” We had entered the World’s End State Park by Forksville, PA. This was a land of trees turning from green to gold and an interesting green gold in between. It wasn’t raining but the road was under trees and hadn’t dried out at all. While going through at 10 to 20 mph w were slipping around a few times. You’d hear whoops, whoa, whew, occasionally, from one of us. Some of the prettiest trees and scenery was in that park and it was well worth it. The sun tried to come out unsuccessfully, but it was enough to light up the golden leaves above us as we passed slowly below them. Soon we were out on pavement and heading for the next dirt road. There wasn’t much gravel on these roads, and they were slick. We got on some roads later in the day and we had good traction and Jared was leading. I guess he was feeling comfortable on my Super Tenere because I was up to 60 mph and we were ripping along through the woods and I wasn’t gaining on him at all. Mike and I happily chased him, and fun was had by all and that was the MO for the rest of the day. Even on the slippery stuff we started goofing off more and soon miles and hours had passed us by. Did the rain or clouds go away like promised? Nope! The sun did shine through for about 30 minutes while we stopped for a lunch of salami and cheese at the corner of two crossroads in the middle of nowhere. Towards 3 pm some heavy rain came through and that was no fun but within 2 miles it had moved on. We finally came out to a black top road and we had to stop as it was 4 pm and we didn’t know where we were along our route. We seemed to be about 50 miles shy of the end and had to make a decision… Try to complete the days route or head to a motel. I looked at the map and found Coudersport, PA. It looked like we could finish the route and end up about 25 miles from Coudersport. Mike looked up to see if Coudersport was big enough to even have a motel. Yep, it was. He booked some rooms and we then headed away from Coudersport down another wonderful, paved road to connect with some back country dirt roads. The colors were good but as we were at 2,400’ a lot today there were a lot of trees that had already dropped their leaves. The few spots of sun that did get through the clouds really brought the colors out. We were only about 2 miles from finishing the route when we got off the route and had to figure out how to get back on so we could get out to a paved road. Jared stopped while Mike and I went about 15’ further and stopped on some level ground. Next thing we hear something over the comms, and I hear Mike say… You ok Jared? Yes! I turn around and there’s Jared and the bike lying on the ground. Slippery mud and sloped ground got the best of him. As he was getting up I went over and got the bike upright and we all hopped back on our steeds and got to the right road no worse for the wear! 2 miles later we were on black top, 15 miles down the road we stopped to put some gas in “Wilbur”. I started calling Mike’s KTM “Wilbur” because it sure grunts and snorts like a pig whenever he was getting on the gas! He was making it snort a lot today and the 2 gallons we carry along with us came in handy as he has the smallest tank. We checked in the hotel and Mike stayed in and ordered pizza, but Jared and I went out to sample the local Chinese cuisine. It was quite tasty. We rolled up and parked under a canopy that the hotel had for people to grill under. There was a group of friendly locals drinking adult beverages and we chatted with them for about 30 minutes. They were telling us of some winding routes back to Lancaster, PA. I mapped them out, but Mike had a plan ands we went with that the next morning. Today was a long day of 200 miles. I know that doesn’t sound like a long day but when your average speed is around 30 mph (Maybe) it takes a while to do 200 miles.