I agreed to do the Women Who Ride Seminar and Dropped bike Demo again at Americade in Lake George, NY when they called me in January. It was cold and rainy here, not to mention 10 feet of snow up there. At that time of the year for us in Georgia we would agree to any kind of ride. Could you imagine not being able to ride for 3 months like them? They even drain fluids from their bikes in the fall. I can't imagine such a ritual.

I worked until 10am on Wednesday, June 4th. boogied out on 285 to have traffic stop just beyond my exit. Please don't let this be an omen for my trip. Soon the road clears up and I am on my way headed North on 75 to Knoxville, TN. There is always a back-up of traffic going into Knoxville. I know how to ride the right lane into the block, which seriously irritates the 18 wheelers. That won't be the last time I do such a thing. Do I ride aggressive or what? After that snafu of traffic I am home free until I get well into VA and their DOT work. I do the same kind of riding and make good time.

Ok, so VA says radar detector are illegal. Why then, do they have all those bogus radars going off at construction sites? Huh? I didn't turn mine off, I only disguised it as a left over dinner;-) I paid attention to all alerts. .

I found a sweet little motel in Bayse, VA. It had just gotten gloomy on a trip report that said clouds and rain for days. I had skirted the storms by going up the 81 corridor. The East coast was being blasted. I really felt lucky.

I spent the night with the rhythm of the rain on my bike cover just outside my door. The view would have been spectacular of the Blue Ridge Mountains if I could have seen them, so my next store neighbor told me. He felt so sorry for me that he got in his truck and brought me dinner. Best food I have ever eaten. We had a splendid porch talk while watching the clouds and rain.

Next morning, it was cloudy, but dry. I zipped on up to Lake George making great time with little delay time.

I had a bit of a time finding the 87 Thruway in NY. I must have missed the sign and ended up on a sweet parallel road to the Thruway. My Street "P" tried her best to lead me back, but sadly routed me under it several times. Finally I asked for directions, much to the humor of what I would have called rednecks, except I was in Yankee country, given by there accents. After about 50 miles on some beautiful NY country roads, I got back onto the Thruway to Lake George.

I am not complaining about my detour at all. I loved it. That brought me to a situation that reminds me of the Iron Butt 2000. I was broken down on the side of I-10 outside of Tucson, Arizona, peering at gear oil covering my back wheel wondering, what am I doing here? I need to stop and fish some, instead of covering all these miles. What if I had lost it on this road? Ok, so I was overreacting. When I found myself pleasantly off route, I totally enjoyed it.

I arrived in Lake George at 6 pm., let them know I had arrived, and went to set up camp. I had only planned on staying the night, then leaving after the seminars. I had unknowingly reserved, way back in January, the best campsite in the park, right on the lake. I set up camp, met my neighbors, Pat and Jack, great folks from just down the road in NY.

I was too lazy to ride for food and was going to eat my protein bars for dinner, then try to catch up on my sleep after an 1150 mile day and a half ride. Wuss? Pat invited me to come share their food, which I only refused less than half a moment. We had a great campfire dinner and camaraderie. This is what camping is all about.

Oh yeah, I forgot. The sun starts to show its wondrous colors around 4:30 am way up there, the birds began singing and I could not ignore them. I was making coffee at 5 am and on the lake by 5:05 eating the most wonderful browning, made by my camp neighbor, Pat. Life has never been so wonderful to me. This was definitely the heart of the ride

I go early to the BMW demo rides and to Norm Smith to borrow an RT to use for my dropped bike demo. Uh oh, no such thing available. Norm found me an R 1150 RS to use. Boy do I know this bike well. Probably around 100,250 miles on this bike and untold amounts of lifting. Ok, I'll take it!.

The ladies had no trouble. The bonus was, I had Heather Lewis to help me out with my seminar and dropped bike demo. Heather and I have made friends on the circuit of BMW enthusiast and employees. If I had not met up with Heather, I would have done my demo and turned around and left for home. I rode her on the back of the mighty K-12 Dancer down to the vender area, smooth as the K-12 can be. I was experienced carrying passengers because of my children and their adventures with Mom around the US.

We shopped, visited, and photographed the essence of Americade. What a great rally and full of friendly Yankees. What a sight for this Georgia girls eyes.

I took Heather back to the BMW compound and luckily ran into Shiva, of the K-12 world. We had a great talk and promise to keep in touch. I went back to camp and went to the Lake George beach and a few hours of sun and reading my book. I really made the right decision to stay a day and enjoy my campsite. I spent the rest of the evening with two riders sharing their campfire, food and good cheers.

The early sunrise had me making coffee again at 5 and getting my campfire going. Packed up my bike and was on the road by 6am. I stopped at Denny's just down the road and shared breakfast with a bunch of NY city postal workers. What the heck, I had decided to take 3 days travel back to GA I might as well enjoy the locals. I laughed continuously with these fellows and they laughed at me several times after I missed my turns and had to do u'es in medians.

Soon the predicted rain came. I was ready, gloves tucked in along with my collar. I rode for 400 miles in torrential down pour. At one point all traffic on 81 was detoured for about 20 miles to a small town due to an accident in the fog. Hate to imagine what happened. Sort of reminds me of another detour in the Smokey Mountains last month that led me to a dirt road for 8 miles. The good thing was that the monotony of a serious rain storm on a motorcycle for several hundred miles was broken by the detour. I took the detour with happiness.

I was ready to stop as soon as I hit 400 miles, but I couldn't find the kind of place I wanted to settle in. I decided to ride a few more miles. Well, those few became more and before I knew it I had hit 500 miles. I chose a motor inn near a, you guessed it, a Denny's. This Denny's had a bar in it too. Great for someone who had no thoughts to ride anywhere else that night. I watched Dolly Parton on CMT and fell asleep.

I woke to scurrying clouds and no rain. I had thoughts of riding the Blue Ridge Parkway for the morning but I could not see the mountains for the clouds. Forget that. Who wants to ride on curvy foggy roads? Not me. I zipped on down 81 and before I knew it I was within spitting distance to Atlanta. Why stay in a strange motel 3 hours away from home when I could just as soon sit on my own porch with a cat in my lap and dog lying at my feet? Boogied on down the road to home of course.

Ok, I had three days to ride 1140 miles, but instead did it in two. What's up with this? I did 1150 miles in two days again, in spite of my new resolve to slow down and check out the sites. I guess I am an Iron Butt rider no matter how much I want to change. I suppose that is why I had a fuel cell put on my mighty K-12. I really have no good reason to stop on most days.

SKERT.
Iron Butt Assc.