Harley2004's Travel Blog

Glens Falls, New York, Friday, June 4th, 2004 - Glens Falls, New York

 This place was Amazing visited Jun 4, 2004

Beautiful day today, at least in Glens Falls, New York. Out real early this morning, under clear skies and upper 40s temperatures. First stop was Wal-Mart to drop off a roll of film to get developed. Then off to Fort Ann, New York and McDermott Motorcycles, the local Harley Davidson dealer, to get a much needed oil change in the motorcycle. Was at the dealer about 8:50AM and they didn’t open until 9:30, so I was plenty early and first in line. They are a usually a great dealership but I ran into a little problem today. They removed the "derby" cover to refill the primary case with oil and stripped one of the screw holes slightly and didn’t have time for fix it. They didn’t admit doing it, but it wasn’t stripped when I took the bike in. I asked why they took the derby cover off and they stated they took it off to put the oil in the primary case. I replied that you don’t have to remove the derby cover to put the oil in the primary case, I always use the smaller inspection cover that only has two screws instead of four. The service manager said they like to add the oil through the derby cover so they can check the exact level of the oil when it is added. I don’t agree with them, what’s to check? You drain out the oil and you add one quart, it only takes one quart, nothing to check. Anyway it took them 2 hours to change 4 quarts of oil. I usually do it at home in less than 30 minutes. Back to the motel by 1:15PM to drop off some item from the dealer (Peggy bought two t’s) and found a maintenance man in our motel room replacing the fan motor in the bathroom. That didn’t make me too happy either, so we went back out again to eat dinner and then on to Wal-Mart to pick up the pictures and some coffee, coffeemate and other snack items to have handy in the room during our stay. I usually park up front at the Wal-Mart stores in the areas that are marked with yellow lines at the end of parking lanes, but up here in New York, everybody parks in them. Usually never see anyone parked in those areas except here in New York. Looks to me like a lot of these New Yorkers think the yellow lined off areas are for Handicap Parking. The maintenance man was finished and gone when we returned to our motel moon at 3:00PM after only 40 miles today, 13,815 miles this trip, 135,475 total miles.

posted Apr 18, 2005 | Comments (0)

Glens Falls, New York, Thursday, June 3rd, 2004 - Glens Falls, New York

 This place was Amazing visited Jun 3, 2004

What a beautiful day today. When the sun came up, not a cloud in the sky, temperatures in the low 50s and almost no wind. We even hit the road a little early since it was so nice outside. Out of the motel at 8:50AM, headed South on Highway 390 to get back on the Interstate 90, The New York State Thruway. Not really a lot of traffic, speed limits were generally set at 65MPH, except in the few construction areas and not any slowdowns no where. Made three gasoline stops at every other Service Plaza with a real light snack at around 11:30PM. Off Interstate 90 just past Schenectady and then followed Highway 7 to connect with Interstate 87 North for the last leg of the trip to Glens Falls. As we neared the end of Interstate 90 part of the trip the storm clouds started gathering and as we progressed up Interstate 87 we narrowly missed several showers. But we didn’t get wet today! Into the motel at around 2:00PM after a beautiful, dry, warm ride of 261 miles today, 13,775 miles this trip, 135,435 total miles.

posted Apr 18, 2005 | Comments (0)

Rochester, New York, Wednesday, June 2nd, 2004 - Rochester, New York

 This place was Amazing visited Jun 2, 2004

Another day in the motel. Rains continued again today and we have several days to spare so no need to brave Interstate 90 in the heavy rains again. We are warm and dry in a nice motel with a Cracker Barrel, next door. What more could anyone want. We hit the road again tomorrow morning at 9:00AM and move on to Glen Falls, New York. Peggy got the previous pictures labeled on the web site. Don’t know about internet access in Glen Falls, MSN has a number in the area but the motel wants to charge for local calls. I have already talked to the Owner of the motel, so we’ll see how it goes.

posted Apr 18, 2005 | Comments (0)

Rochester, New York, Tuesday, June 1st, 2004 - Rochester, New York

 This place was Amazing visited Jun 1, 2004

Still in Rochester, no miles, no pictures, no ABC’s of Touring points, but everything is dry (mostly). My boots and gloves are still a little wet. Haven’t decided on tomorrow yet, but it looks like rain with clearing on Thursday and Friday. Have to wait until about 6:00AM to make our final decision. We will use tomorrow to catch up on internet work and do banking. This motel had what they call "Highspeed Internet". After trying it for a few hours I don’t really know what to call it. Maybe "Free Access to Internet", but it certainly was not Highspeed. I’m back on "Dial-up", it’s much faster than this motel’s Highspeed Internet Access. I’ve always had problem getting on line in Lake George, so we’ll see this year. If I don’t post anything for about a week and a half, don’t get concerned.

posted Apr 18, 2005 | Comments (0)

Rochester, New York, Monday, May 31st, 2004 - Rochester, New York

 This place was Amazing visited May 31, 2004

What a day, but at least is was short in miles, but not in time. Woke up this morning around 7:00AM to heavy rain. Weather channel showed rain passing through Erie, but it would be out of our way my 11:00AM and we could fall in behind it on our way North towards Buffalo and it was not supposed to be raining in Rochester, our destination for today. I had slowed down our travel to kill some time before we are due in Lake George on June 7th. By 11:00 the Weather Channel showed that the rain had passed us, but it was still raining outside. We decided to leave a 12:00AM since it was a shorter ride, and let the rain get ahead of us. We finally left the motel, with our rain suits on with no rain, but wet pavement. About 20 miles down the road we caught up with the heavy rain. A few miles later we came across the New York state sign, and you know we had to stop and take the picture. Nice sign, good place to pull off and it wasn’t raining too hard, just couldn’t turn it down. We’re up to 100 points now. Proceeded on again until I couldn’t see and pulled off under a bridge and waited for the storm to move on. After about 30 minutes the storm had moved on and we did to. About 20 miles up the road we caught up with rain and I rode until I could see anymore and then pulled over under a overpass and waited until the storm moved on. Thats the kind of day it was, rode in rain all day, finally made it to the motel at around 6:00PM, wet, cold and I’m gonna stay here until it quits raining. Actually pant legs got a little wet on the bottom under the rain suit. Tank bag got wet, but we have everything protected and of course our clothing is always protected with a garbage bag inside the bag and then covered with another garbage bag on the outside. So no clothes got wet. Just rain suits, shoes and pride! And of course Peggy was well covered and didn’t get too wet. I hate riding in the rain, and add to that the Memorial Day week end with everyone headed home early due to the heavy rains and it was a mess. We saw several vehicle accidents, but we lucked out and survived the bad rain. Finally into the motel around 6:00PM after only (thankfully) 165 hard, wet, dangerous miles today, 13,514 miles this trip, 135,174 total miles.

posted Apr 18, 2005 | Comments (0)