I arrived at the McD's to find Bill Castellano, Al Antonson, and Bill's parents (!) there. So we sat and chatted for a bit, then finally moved outside at about 9:30... Still nobody else, so we wait, since I know PoPs and Chrispy will show... and sure enough, they did... about 5 to 10 mins later. After zapping my chain with some chain wax, and waiting around to see if anyone else decides to show up, we decide that it's time to go after waiting 20 mins past the planned departure time. PoPs yells out, "Hey Ogulin... you wanna take point? I don't remember the route." Sure... I take point and out we go. We probably found some of the most boring roads that weren't slabs of highway, but it wasn't the GSP, so it was just a tad bit more interesting. We took 537 west to 539 south, passing through part of Ft. Dix (I didn't even need to see a sign to know that, because the place just looked like certain areas of Ft. Dix which I normally see.) and finally getting to NJ 70. NJ 70 west to NJ 72 east where we find our first fun point... a traffic circle... minimal traffic here, fortunately, so it was easy enough to zip around... Bill's parents continued on 539, since they had other plans, but decided to tag along for a little while.

East on 72 then to 563 south. This was probably the most fun road of the entire set. It had a few twisties, fairly decent pavement most of the way (though I think 72 was the worst of the lot)... but what do you want? This is now south-central bum-fuck NJ... We followed 563 all the way to US 40, where we found another traffic circle... with lots of traffic who didn't seem to care for motorcycles... (they were probably more concerned with either getting to or away from Atlantic City as fast as possible) Well, we got through it and meet up with Ken Denton (he's not dead yet) and Deb Johnson, Harold Gantz, and one other guy (who's name escapes me right now :-( ). After a fuel stop, we get on the GSP for the final 30-40 miles of the trip to Cape May.

This stretch of the GSP has to have the two closest toll barriers... I think there were about 7-9 miles between them. Oh well. The breeze didn't help matters when going over the bridges (I think everyone got shifted around here and there). PoPs takes over point once we get to the end of the GSP, since I've never been to Cape May, and he has an idea of where the place is. Well, he got us there with no problem. :-)

Those of us who need to do so, sign in. From here, Ken and Deb, Harold, and the third guy (who's name still escapes me :-( ) take off on their own, since they'd decided to turn this into a full day of fun-in-the-sun-on-a-bike. Bill, PoPs, Chrispy, Al, and I go home via a different route than our arrival one.

Back up the GSP to exit 4 (where we had to pay a stupid 25 cent toll... which I was not expecting) and then onto 47 north. Follow 47 (which wasn't bad once you got out of the town of Rio Grande) up to 610, and 610 to 50. 610 was boring and buggy (this was the worst spot for bugs on the entire trip). NJ 50 got better, however. Somewhere along NJ 50, the Dutchess snapped her clutch cable. This made the ride from here on rather interesting, since we had some stops (due to stop signs and traffic lights). We did the best we could to watch traffic and just wave PoPs on through whenever possible so that he wouldn't have to stop.

We followed 50 back to 563, and then just back-tracked the route down from here. North on 563 to 72 west. Stop for fuel just before the circle. After fueling up, we pulled out of the lot (or so I thought we all did). A couple of miles east on 70, and PoPs, Bill, and I noticed that Chrispy and Al had disappeared... We stopped, waited a minute or two, and I doubled back to see if I could find them. I went as far back as the circle and didn't see them, so, like an idiot, I assumed they'd taken a different route home from here. Little had I known that had I gone back to the gas station, I would've found them. Anyway, I went back to meet up with PoPs and Bill, and fill them in on what I'd (not) seen. We all figure the same thing... no crash, they're adults (well, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt... :-) ), and there are two of them together... so we continue on. 70 to 539, and 539 back to 537. PoPs heads out on I-195 to the Turnpike and Parkway (since he wanted the route with the fewest stops). Bill continues up 537, and I go on 526.

Once I got home, I called PoPs to see how he made out getting home. He had a streak of good luck. His only two stops were taking the ticket and paying the toll for the turnpike... he caught all the green lights from the Parkway to his house. After this, I called Chrispy to see what happened... Al's bike didn't start. They push-started it, and followed the same route we did and got home safely. Turns out Chrispy doubled-back first to find Al still stuck at the gas station lot.

Other than a strong breeze at some points (at least it wasn't a gusty wind), the ride was actually quite pleasant. I hope those who went at least enjoyed it. I know I did... and I've never been on any of those roads before, except for the GSP.

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