We got up at 7:15 to say goodbye to all our Michigan City, Indiana friends. They were going to leave at 8:00, like normal. We hugged everybody and thanked Steve, Headdog, Moore, for his excellent work being our fearless leader, as well as his wife, Tami, who helped a lot too. Greg Ross for being our spiritual guidance Chaplain, and for always having a great thought for the day; each and every day. Dan, Watch Dog, and his wife, Taco, were really helpful to Joni and myself. They are all really good people to be around. Gary Player did a great job at Road Guard Captain, and being another caring person. Gary & Nancy, from Illinois, were wonderful people to be around as well. Larry, also from Illinois, was a laugh a minute, and responsible for bringing Svein and Einar, from Norway, and Paul from Denmark, to join us on the ride. Our international friends were very good to be around too. Pappy & Pumper did a super job with the chase truck & trailer, especially for helping Joni & I in our time of need. Bruce, for driving the van pulling the merchandise trailer, and helping with the merchandise sales. He was also responsible for doing the sit-reps (situation reports),each and every day and getting them turned in on time. EA and Grant, for helping to sell the merchandise too. Buzz was awesome as our pacer always up front and in control. Ed, Silver top, Kintzele, for being our missing man coordinator, and his rider, Sandy. Steve, Baby Face, as another excellent Road Guard, and great personality. Steve Mulcahy was always someone very knowledgeable on the history of the NVAR. Kent Wilson was our rider representive, and a super nice guy as well. Rich, Spinner, was also another good person to be around. John Childers, from Ohio, was always ready to lend a helping hand, especially when I needed a kickstand and a drill. Rayjean and friends, from the Chillico area were a great bunch of people to be around too. Steve, from Arizona, and Dakota from Kansas, were two first timers who were good to have around too. Les, from Salem Oregon, was very pleased that he accidentally ran into our group, and he was a pleasure to be around too. Drew & his brother, Cliff had breakfast earlier, and Cliff left with the group. He was going to ride to Kansas City with Dakota, and see who he can run into to ride back to California with. It was a pleasure to have Cliff around for his positive attitude and great personality. What I’m trying to say is, everyone on the ride was super to be around, and I would ride anywhere with them.
We unfortunately heard that George, from California, got in a wreck on his bike and had to go to the hospital. I hope to find out more about the situation later. We watched 23 bikes take off in a group with the two vehicles with trailers behind them. Randy, Sis and I had a last breakfast at the I-Hop next door. We walked back to our room and found Keith & Les getting ready to go. They are also from Oregon. They are going to have their bikes trucked back home while they fly home. We were very slow in getting ready to give Joni more time to feel better.
We left around noon, after filling up the tanks. We took 395 South to 495 East, and then 95 North. Traffic was very light, especially for a Memorial Day holiday. The first 150 miles were trouble free. We followed Drew through a ‘fast pass’ tollbooth for one of the toll roads. We all figured he had it under control for all of us. He thought he did too, ‘cause he had a ‘fast pass’. He said when he found out it didn’t work, he looked for someone to pay, but the booth was empty. We hope to not hear more about that later! There was another tollbooth for another section of the road. It sure seems weird to pay to drive on a road! The next tollbooth was for getting on the New Jersey Turnpike. We rolled up to the booth, and each of us got a ticket that was spit out of the machine. Another 108 miles later, we pulled off on one of the service areas, for fuel and a drink.
It was pretty warm by then. Off came the jackets, and it was time to figure out what to do. It was after 6:00, and I wanted to get us past New York City before the morning commute could catch us wrapped up in traffic in the AM. We got to the end of the Jersey Turnpike and there were 2 lines for cash on the left and 4 lines for ‘fast pass’ on the right. This section was for going over the George Washington Bridge. We got in the right hand cash pay line, and saw a lot of rude people driving right up to the front of the line, and cutting in. After witnessing this SEVERAL times, I got a little perturbed at this crap, and about 3-4 car lengths ahead I saw the last person try to cut in.
I rode my rat bike up to play blocker for this rude person. There were 4 people in the car and the female driver started to honk her horn at me. I turned around and said, “Wait your turn”. The people in a couple of cars beside me, who saw this, thanked me for it. A few seconds later she RAN INTO ME WITH HER CAR! She hit my train horns on the right side and almost knocked me over. I put the kickstand down as fast as I could unhook the bungee cord. Her car was still touching my bike. When I jumped off my bike, I must have tripped on her car, ‘cause my fist accidentally touched her hood while trying to hold myself up. Drew got off his bike and said, “You just caused an accident. You can’t just run into a motorcycle like that”! I reached down to read her license plate. It must have came off in the accident ‘cause I held it up in the air and yelled, “How many people saw her just hit me”? A few people said they will be a witness. At that time her passenger dude got out of the front seat ant tried to read my license plate on the ‘front’ of my bike. Her car was still right on my bike, so he could not read my ‘rear plate’. He then went up to the tollbooth person to “tell”! I was the one who got hit by his driver, not the other way around! At that time the line was moving. I took out my camera and took a picture of her sitting in her car, her plate laying on the ground, and my grease and dirt that was left on her bumper, from my train horns. Another car looked like he was going to try to cut in front of us, and Joni told him, “I wouldn’t recommend doing that”. He wisely stayed back. We got up to the tollbooth and the car was right behind Joni. I watched her very close, while Cynthia was paying for all of us. We just looked at each other and said, “Wow. What a piece of work she was”!
We continued on to the next tollbooth. This one was uneventful, and normal; as it should be. We were inside of New York for this one. Next tollbooth was for the George Washington Bridge. Wow, that one was $8.00 each bike! We went across the bridge and continued north on 95, through Manhattan. The road had some HUGE potholes that tried to swallow our wheels with quite a clunk! The next thing we knew, we were in Connecticut trying to find a motel.
We got off at exit 12 and went right. After a few miles, Drew pulled over and I put lodging into my GPS. It told me a motel was only 1.2 miles away. I was leading and listening to my GPS. After a few turns into a residential area, I discovered that my GPS was lying to me. I put in a Howard Johnsons Motel and after quite a few more turns, we got there. They wanted $99.00 + tax for a room. The place was empty. We pointed out that fact to the gal behind the counter, and asked her to match the price of the motel a couple of miles down the road, (that they told us about)! She said the owner just raised the prices and won’t go any lower. We asked her, “Is it better to have 3 rooms rented for less, or stay empty“? She didn’t care, so we rode a couple of miles down the road. The guy that I talked to on the phone would only honor the quoted price of $66.00 + tax for one room, not all three. We had a coupon book that the other motel gave us! After a while, he made a phone call and said he would charge us all the same. He said we could have 2 king bed rooms, and one double bed room. Perfect. That is until we got in to the rooms to find 1 king bed and 2 doubles. Sis was not very happy about her double bed. We offered her our king but she said, “No, I just want to go to sleep“. Drew rode into town and got a pizza, and I called another pizza place for a 3 sandwich delivery. 10 minutes later, we had our sandwiches. Randy came over to get his, as Joni was talking to our very bestest girlfriend from back home, Carol. We just got a call from our daughter, saying her wrist is not broken. As I’m typing this, Joni is now asleep trying to feel better for tomorrow. I’m next. We’ll see how much excitement we can handle tomorrow!!!!!