Subject: Home again, home again, jiggety jig
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 17:23:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: tale@vix.com (David C Lawrence)
Reply-To: east@dnrc.bell-labs.com
To: Multiple recipients of list <east@dnrc.bell-labs.com>

Oooah ... aaaahhhh ... that was a mighty fine RCR.

Let me see how it all adds up:

  Day 1:
    366 miles from Mt Mansfield, VT, to Halstead, PA in 7:20.

  Day 2:
    3 mile jog (no, I _wasn't_ pushing my bike).
    335 miles from Halstead, PA, to Camp Westmar, MD in 6:20.
    8 mile way back roads ride to dinner in Thurmont.

  Day 3:
    Screw the jog.  What was I thinking?
    252 mile Covered Bridges Tour -- back before dinner!

  Day 4:
    Leave Westmar 8:20am, arrive Mt Mansfield 8:50pm in 12:30.
    666 miles (really!) consisting of:
      11 miles of forest road (Bald Eagle State Forest, PA)
          7 miles chip-sealed
          4 miles dirt
      139 miles of county and rural town roads
          4 miles MD
         42 miles PA
         49 miles NY
         42 miles VT
          2 miles VT dirt
      516 miles of state highways
          5 miles MD
        278 miles PA
        218 miles NY
         15 miles VT
      6 miles of federal highways
        2 miles US 15 concurrent with PA 973
        4 miles US 9 concurrent with NY 8
      0 miles of interstate highway
    5 stops to pick wildflowers for my wife
    3 stops for fuel/restroom/snacks
    1 stop to put on the full rain gear
    1 stop for being in the middle of nowhere and really having to pee
    1 stop for coffee and french fries

It was cold and wet most of the way, but the upside to this was that
there was less traffic.  I had many long sections where I could just
cruise and cruise.  Only for a little while did it really rain hard on me.

Notables for the trip:

  * Running on a spit of gas, 20 miles from the next town with fuel,
    but still doing a buck plus through the NY 10 twisties by the resevoir.
    That's living.
  * The tornado damange to a northern hardwood forest -- around Lemon,
    PA -- was quite impressive.
  * The fox that ran across my path on PA 235.  (Not close enough to
    be a hazard.  Two birds who flew straight ahead of me were my only
    wildlife hazard the whole way.)
  * The Adirondack Ural store in Chestertown, NY.  Definitely have
    to go back there.
  * Only two cops the entire trip was definitely a pleasure!

Anyway ...

Thank you, PoPs, for braving the way back roads route to the Gateway
Restaurant.

Thank you, Paul, Mike, James and Ed, for braving the Covered Bridges Tour.
Especially Paul, "Official Photographer of the Mighty Fine Bridges."
Plue he didn't run me over once on that pumped up bike of his.  The
other special mentions:  James, for managing to get his wife to agree
to let him come while she took care of the two week old baby; Mike,
for making a V-Max turn, and Ed for keeping up on his Nighthawk.

Thank you, Tom, for sharing your mighty fine Scotch.

Thank you, Jim & Lou, for coming and lending your name to this lovely
floral paper plate I was honored with.

Thank you, Kerry (and your friend Jack), for being so entertaining.

Thank you, everyone else, for the wonderful company -- stories,
laughs, photos and more.

And especially, thank you, Mike, for putting all the pieces together
to make an RCR -- but most of all, for sacrificing yourself to the
Gods of Personal Injury, appeasing them so that others were spared.
But tell me, couldn't you also have had a chat with the Gods of
Sunlight and Warmth?

Dave

PS:  Wildflowers don't travel well in mostly full tank bags.
She humored me and put them in a vase anyway.

PPS:  For the nasty rumor going around about me being a SpeedFreek, I
would like you to observe that 666/12.5 = a mere 53.3 mph average speed.
Friday was even slower at 52.9, and Thursday slower still at 49.9 mph.
See, all very sedate speeds.  Now take that back.