The eight months of planning and one rescheduling of the trip had finally passed and the day had arrived after many sleepless nights to join George and Bob on
our 4-day excursion to the Adirondacks in New York on our steel beasts. We met just before 5:00am on Wednesday, July 30th at Little Sandy's Service Station. The morning was very foggy as we headed north to Somerset, PA. Just before Confluence, PA, the fog was so thick that I could see my shadow in front of me cast by the headlights of George's Vulcan. It was quite, eerie, but my riding buddies were both twice my size, so I was not afraid.We followed my ghostly shadow through the night sky until the fog cleared just south of Somerset. Heading east on 30 the sun began its rise above the earth as the sky lightened and our stomachs made us aware that it was approaching time for breakfast. But before we could eat, chance would have it for us to meet another biker that we named "The Waver." He saw us coming for about 1/4 of a mile and started waving like he was either in a parade or he had never seen another soul on a motorcycle in his life. He would become the joke for the trip as each of us passed him, laughing out loud. At least he was happy to be riding, or else had crashed without his helmet last season.
In Ev
erett we stopped at Kelly's Scenic View Restaurant, which overlooked the local cemetery. While the breakfast itself was just average, the waitress was exceptional and took George and me in the backroom. Bob was afraid to go, so he will just have to wonder what went on back there.Following breakfast we headed north on 26 to State College, then hit 45. I killed a bird that decided to wedge itself between my fork and fender. Bob put it in his saddlebag to cook when we arrived in NY.
45 would lead us east to 15 and then to 14, which would take
us to the NY border, where we stopped for a nice photo op. In NY we would we weave our way NE from Elmira to Ithaca, to Utica where we would hit route 8 to take us to Piseco Lake and Point Comfort Campground. We were getting excited to be getting close to our destination as our backsides were letting us know the many hours in the saddle.After one final fuel stop we traveled through Poland, near Russia and Norway, finally reaching the Adirondacks. When we arrived at our campsite, we quickly discovered that it did not live up to its name. Point Comfort it was not as it had no showers and toilets that went directly into the ground. After a brief altercation with "Check-In Charlie," we found our site and set up camp, deciding to make the most of it, even though George and I both remembered their
website mentioning "hot showers." Such was not the case. Our tents were quickly put up, although Bob put his up quicker by himself than George and I did together, which 
makes a lot of sense if you know either one of us. Our motto is this: "Together we can do the work of one normal man" - although in this case we still weren't able to succeed. We did finally get our tent set up and had a beautiful view as we looked out of our tents right onto Piseco Lake.As we were setting up our tents, we had the privilege of meeting Ross Perot, Jr., who in fact camped right beside of us. He asked us where we were from and admired our bikes while he and his girlfriend/sister?? and father/grandfather? drank beer and philosophized on the significance of marshmallows. After scavengering for wood to give us something to do, we roasted brats over the fire and talked about our ride and plotted our next day while Bob's butt screamed, "NO MORE!" We turned in for the night after a great day and a long ride - 530 miles.
Day 2
We awoke to a beautiful morning after a decent night's sleep, except for George since his missed his wife already. We bathed at the faucet near the restrooms, which was a bi
t embarrassing since the water was ice cold, then got dressed and ready to ride to Speculator for breakfast (which I thought was Spectacular and George thought was Spectator). After a great breakfast at the Sunshine Diner where we enjoyed Grilled Muffins, we rode to Speculator Beach just a few blocks away to admire the scenery before heading north to Lake Placid.We journeyed to Lake Placid by the most indirect route possible, passing the Pig Rock and
missing our road, so went farther east and south, but finally reached route 9 north to 73 into Lake Placid. Along the way we went through Keene Valley and saw three climbers ascending the rock face. We stopped and took a few p
ictures since Bob's backside was hurting, and discussed our disappointment in the roads. We expected some nice twisties like we had left behind in WV and had yet to experience them. We journeyed closer to Lake Placid, came around a curve and looming before us were the ski jumps from the 1980 Olympics as a landmark that Lake Placid was near; which was good because our breakfast had long since been digested.We rumbled into town and parked near the
Station Street Grill, that a man at a gas station over 100 miles to the south told us about, so we took his word that this would be the place for lunch. Our three steel beasts looked threatening parked across the road by the fountain. We had a great lunch on the balcony; George and I enjoyed Chicken with Jamaican Jerk rub while 
Bob had an open-face pulled pork sandwich. We had a great lunch in the open air discussing our ride thus far, and even making fun of a few bikers that rode by 
with very quiet bikes. What a shame! Lake Placid would prove to be a neat town with a very nostaligic feel with Olympic Fever still in the air. We stopped to see the Bobsled tracks before heading east to Lake Champlain.We took 9N along Lake Champlain and decided that we would
jump over into Vermont to say that we had been there. We stopped for a photo op on the lake before continuing south back to Speculator for supper. George and I both felt bad for Bob as he was getting more uncomfortable as the day progressed. While we didn't ride 500 miles, we still put in over 300 in the saddle that day, which is nothing to sneeze at.
