JAMBO

I'm attending the Boy Scout National Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill Virginia for two weeks. It's only been two days and I miss the bike already.

Evening Cruise to LBI

Long Beach Island (LBI) is a barrier island on the New Jersey Coast that is covered with homes, amusements, restaurants and nice beaches. It is marked by a 165' lighthouse on the North end known as 'Old Barney'.
One of our favorite things to do is to go to the island for Clam Chowder at a little restaurant that only makes Clam Chowder.
The other night we decided to take a cruise down to the island for some Clam Chowder. Barb and I, and Chris on his bike took the ride. The ride is along a fairly straight stretch of highway, Rt. 72, (about 30 miles to the island) that passes mostly through the Jersey Pinelands. The ride was uneventful with the exception of cars passing us at 70+ mph, in a endless hurry to get to the island.
It was a beautiful evening even thought it was hot (what a suprise these days). The chowder was goood (as always).
The ride home was into the West and was marked by a beautiful sunset and very little traffic going our direction.

Bike Night at Rita's Water Ice

Rita's Water Ice is a chain of stores that sell flavored Water Ice and Soft Ice Cream. When you combine the two you get great, cold goodies like Gelatis.
The local Rita's is owned by an man (Fred) that is a biker. Every other Tuesday night is bike night, where water ice is free and everything else is 'buy two get one free'.
Barb and I as well as Heather and her boyfriend decided to go to bike night last week. There were alot of bikes there (mostly Harleys). The atmosphere was fun and the Gelatis were good.
I guess we'll have to go more often.

Another Hot Day; 9/11 Memorial, Bowmans Tower, Peddler's Village

Today's ride was another hot one. After a slow start at the diner we headed out. Our first stop was the 9/11 monument in Lower Makefield Township...but not before having to do a u-turn to get to it. Next we headed up to Washington's Crossing State Park to climb the hill up to Bowman's Tower. It's a high stone tower on top of a hill overlooking the Delaware River and the valley surrounding it. You used to be able to climb the stairs inside to the top but now they've installed an elevator. Next we went to Peddler's Village. We tried several very crowded places for lunch before settling on Earles, which was almost empty. What a great burger! We walked around Peddler's Village a bit before getting on the bikes and heading for our last stop...ice cream at Tanners Market. This place is always crowded and has the best ice cream and serves the largest cones. We ended the day by returning to the base of the Burlington Bristol Bridge.

Fourth of July Weekend

This was another weekend of very hot weather. As long as you keep moving the heavy safety jacket is not too bad. The air moving through it helps keep you cooler.
I made two round trips up to the Princeton Area this weekend. This ride includes a few miles on 295 (70 mph). At that speed I tense up more for some reason, resulting in sore muscles the next day.
There wasn't much traffic which is fine with me. Less trffic equals less idiots not paying attention, talking and texting on their phones and just plain driving badly. Turn signals are very helpful.

A Loooooooooooong Hot Ride

Yesterday, Sunday June 27th, we took our first looooooooong road trip with the NJ Road Riders motorcycle club. The route took us up along the PA side of the Deleware, across to New York where we went through Port Jervis, up a winding road to a high overlook called Eagles Nest. We could see the High Point Monument in NJ through very hazy air. The return trip took us through High Point, south through NJ, to home.
It was a hot, hot day. Because we opt to wear heavy safety gear we sweated to excess all day long. Safety can have a price. Although we had plenty of water on board you can't drink unless you are stopped.
I feel like the 'hobo' rider because we bungee the cooler to our luggage rack (the saddlebags are supposed to come today).
I am always amazed how the smell of a badly rotting carcase of a dead deer will get through to you as you pass by. It's actually quite awful. It seems to linger longer than the stench of a skunk and on a bike there's no avoiding it, no escaping it.

Father's Day Covered Bridge Ride

On Father's Day, June 20th we joined the group at Mt. Holly Powersports for a covered bridge ride through Bucks County PA. This was our second group ride; which had about 30 bikes. The briefing was brief. We started our ride up Rt 206 and it was immediately apparent that this group was kind of loose, switching lanes and weaving around cars.
We took our first break at NJ Washington's Crossing Park. Here we decided to break away from the group with three other bikes. We weren't comfortable riding with this large group and thought we would enjoy the ride more on our own.
Our leader programmed six covered bridge locations into his GPS and off we went. We visited six bridges, stopping at each for a short break. It was nice.
We stopped for lunch at Dillys (?) then headed home through NJ, stopping in New Egypt for Ice Cream.
I need more practice on uphill starts!