Rolling to Renovo

Only problem is... we never made it. Monday dawned bright and clear... the first day of our vacation. The next few days were promising rain, so it was time to seize the day.

This would be the longest trip Deb and I have taken together on the V-Strom. The plan was to go to the Cranberry Bog just south of Renovo. The day was clear and cool when we left home. The fall foliage was nearing its peak.

Somewhere north of Jersey Shore I made a wrong turn and by the time we figured it out we had gone quite a ways in the wrong direction.

Since the dogs were home alone, we decided to save the Bog for another day. The roads and fall foliage had been so wonderful that not getting to our intended destination wasn't really a bummer. For that matter it leaves us with an excuse to do this ride again someday.

Dropping down into Lock Haven (by mistake) we parked the Strom and walked the Main St. looking for lunch. Coming upon Leo's Deli/Bakery I liked the look of it. The first bite of my Italian pannini sandwich confirmed my choice... it was one of the best sandwiches I have ever had.

On the way home, we turned off before Allenwood and visited the "Ordnance." What was originally the town of Alvira, PA was taken over by the government during WWII and developed to turn out bombs and TNT. Today all that remains are the concrete bunkers, built to store the explosives, overgrown with vegetation. You can see that the reflective piping on my Fieldsheer jacket really works! Also remaining from before the Ordnance is the old Alvira cemetery where you can find the graves of Civil War and World War I veterans.


Be careful on the road in and out of the Ordnance... it looks like they dropped some ordnance on the road!

Like Puff the Magic Dragon...

... frolicking in the autumn mist, that is. The last few days have been foggy in the mornings and then quite summery in the afternoon (sounds like I'm describing a person, not the weather... I know I'm quite foggy most mornings!).





Normally I'm in a great rush to get on the road and get to the client early and get started. Such was the case a few weeks ago on a foggy morning and in my rush I passed up some great pictures. The more I thought about it the more bummed I was that I didn't stop. So this morning when I came over the first ridge and could see the river fog lying down in the valleys, I just had to stop. Actually had to stop a couple of times.


OK... maybe it was three or four times....





The trip home this evening was FAST. I don't normally exceed the speed limit by that much, but tonight traffic was flying... both on Rt 34 and Rts. 11/15. I just hung back aways from some vehicles that were cruising along, although still sometimes being passed by people in a REAL HURRY! The motorcycle feels different at closer to 70 than it does at 60... at higher rpm's the engine just smooths out and almost feels electric.


I mentioned before that when I get home the dogs are happy to see me... THIS is what that looks like...



This is Toodie, our Australian Shepherd and she has brought me her (mangled) soccer ball which she would like me to throw, whereupon she will bring it back and want me to throw it again, and again, and again...


Still, it's good to be home.

In the Dark

One of my favorite Bruce Cockburn songs, "Pacing the Cage," has a line that says "sometimes the darkness is your friend..."  I don't think he was talking about motorcycling though. It gets kinda creepy on a bike in the dark. Perception is altered, such that cornering is a bit more difficult, visibility is obviously less and, worst of all, deer and other woodland critters are more likely to spring onto the roadway. Although it had cooled down some by the time I got on the road to home at 8:20PM, it was more for protection than cold that I put on my Fieldsheer overpants.

Didn't mean to be out so late... but ended up doing a 5 hour slog with an outside vendor and Sonicwall tech support trying to setup a VPN passthrough on the County's router. Ugh! I understand routers and what they do. I can usually achieve success in setting up what I want, but there are some things about routers that are just perverse and hateful. I guess that's why there are some guys who specialize in routers and basically nothing else.

Ah well... I'm home now, and the dogs were so very happy to see me.