Well, Saturday, I made a comment to my brother's girlfriend about how we were planning on a ride for Sunday that would be at least 400 miles. All she said to me was, "You know that little girl on the Northern commercials who wraps her fingers before playing the piano? Well, that would be me, only I'd be putting it around my butt." (My brother and I have talked about how the seat on his Shadow is rather uncomfortable on long distances, and his girlfriend has the same comments, overall.)

Anyway, I manage to wake up and leave close enough to on-time to meet up with PoPs and Rich at Felix 9's, before heading on to Thisilldous. Unfortunately, I got caught behind a slow-moving truck on a one-lane road that had no legal passing zones, and I just didn't feel like attempting a double-yellow pass on a windy road, being that it was early morning, and I wasn't ravenously hungry yet, and the roads were rather damp. So I arrived at Felix 9's, and didn't see anyone in the parking lot. I walked inside, and looked at their clock... 6:50. Oh well, they probably left, since I said any time between 6:30 and 6:45, and that was 5 minutes after the 15 minute rule. So I wait another minute, slowly getting ready to leave, and then do so. I figure I'll use the planned route (22 to 523 to 517 to 46 to 620) and stretch a tentacle trying to catch up, after I get some fuel.

So I get my fuel, then head up 523, 517, 46, and 620. I get into Belvidere, find Thisilldous, and I see Rich waving to me and removing his helmet. Seems he got there just a few minutes before me. We go inside and get a table for 5, just in case everyone else shows up. I called PoPs' house to see if PoPs had overslept or anything. Nope. He wasn't home. So I told whichever of his sons that I was at Thisilldous, in case he calls. Rich and I order our breakfast and eat, and he tells me that he arrived at Felix 9's at 6:36, and figured that we applied the five-minute-rule very strictly, and he was only a minute behind us.

Right around 8:30, Paul, Marc, and PoPs show up... Seems PoPs got there after me, and waited until 7:45... then stretched a couple of tentacles to get to Thisilldous. OK, so the morning started out as a comedy of errors... but it wasn't too bad. Everyone who said they were going to show, did. So after paying, we depart. Back out 620 to 46, stop for fuel at the 519 intersection, and continue northi on 519. We pick up 521 in Hope, and follow this up to 94, where 521 takes a nasty hook-turn, and intersects with 602. Well, I saw a sign for 602, but didn't notice any arrows, so I assumed (wrongly) that I needed to go straight for a bit. Well, after a few miles, I had a sudden inspiration that I'd gone the wrong way. Stop... PoPs tells me where I'd gone wrong, so we head back, and take the turn onto 602.

Well, 602 was one of those roads where if you took your medicine that morning and forgot to shake it, don't worry any more. After a stop sign at the top of a hill that would make Bill Cosby "proud," the road became a washboard. Marc didn't care... he was on a Honda Transalp. OTOH, I'm thinking to myself that I have no plans to return to this road. We follow 602 along and I take the turn that puts me toward Walpack, since that's the general direction I want to go, and eventually find 615 after going through part of Delaware Water Gap National Park. 615 wasn't too bad in most places, though it did have the makings of becoming 602-like. As my brother had told me, after you cross into the Flatbrook Wildlife Management Area, there's a point where 615 is closed. So we headed toward Bevans (as planned), followed 560 to 645, and hit a short piece of US 206 before turning off onto Clove Rd (653), as suggested by my brother. This drops us off on NJ 23 just after coming out of the mountains at High Point, and affords us the opportunity to hit the last cheap fuel stop before crossing into NY.

So we continue into Port Jervis via US 6 and NY 97, and head up to the Roebling Bridge, where PoPs takes point for a ride through part of Pennsy. We went along PA 590, passed the Cuckoo's Nest, and meandered our way along some more roads that made 602 look smooth (SR 4003, SR 1015, and SR 1006, if I remember correctly). We turned onto PA 652, and crossed back into NY in Narrowsburg. We got back onto NY 97, then turned onto NY 17B. After a short stint behind a pickup truck that just wouldn't get out of our way, PoPs pulls us over and waits a few minutes for this truck to move on ahead. So we continue east on 17B, and I'm glad PoPs waited. Unfortunately, we eventually caught up to this pickup truck, and again, it wouldn't move out of our way, despite having had ample opportunities to do so. Well it eventually turned into a driveway somewhere along NY 52A, thankfully, and we finished out along 52A and got to NY 52. Just up ahead we pull into a parking lot of sorts, and stop. Seems we missed the road (121) that we'd intended to turn on. Well, we figured out which one it was, (some fool on a Harley was blocking the whole road and wouldn't let us around turned onto 121, so we were glad we didn't go there :-)). We grab a look at a NY map, and I find a route that will get us to where we wanted to go. Meantime, a couple of geese decided to get real friendly, and thought the tobacco from PoPs' pipe might be something good to eat. PoPs wouldn't let them try it, and Paul made sure that the stuff wasn't hot by stomping on it before we left.

So we continued on NY 52 and took a turn onto Sullivan County Rd 128. Llama farm to the right after turning. :-) Follow 128 to 122, turn right, follow 122 to 123 to 124 (nice progression, huh? :-) ). Eventually we get to NY 17 and have to slab it for about 10 miles, at the most. Before we get to the NY 30 exit, PoPs signals to me to stop for fuel (which I'd intended anyway, since I knew there was a fuel stop right at the exit). We stop for fuel and a pit stop, and then head north on NY 30.

Now, everyone except Paul had been on this run before. And after going through Downsville and crossing into Catskill Mountain Park, I pulled the group over for similar reasons to earlier... cages who weren't moving very fast, and I didn't feel like hanging behind them through all those wonderful curves. So after waiting a couple of minutes, we move out, because another cage had appeared in my rear-view mirror, and I didn't want to wait a few more minutes. So we moved out, and had some fun. :-) It appears that the original cages causing us to pull over had turned off on NY 206 or somewhere along the way, because they were never in front of us. Next thing we had to deal with was an 18-wheeler. Well, we pulled over again to let it move ahead, waiting a few minutes. Turns out that the truck was hauling some ass, because it took us a while to catch up with it the first time. So again, we pull over, wait, and then move out. Again we catch up with it. Eventually, I found a legal passing zone and passed the truck, as did Paul. I moved up ahead a bit of a distance, and started to signal to everyone else to double-yellow pass the truck, because the road was clear. Paul relayed the signal back, and everyone else moved around the truck.

After passing the truck, a Kawasaki EX500, 2 up, passes the whole group. At the intersection of NY 28, we turn left, and along with the Kawi is a Suzuki GSXR-something. We're approaching lunch, and I'm getting hungry. The other two riders moved ahead of us, and there were too many slow-moving cages in between me and lunch. So I started a few double-yellow passes, with the road being dry and having little to no traffic. Well, we arrive at the proposed lunch stop to discover a couple of things... They've been renamed and/or bought out (it's now Silver Lake Inn instead of Cooley's Andel Inn) and they don't open 7 days a week except in July and August, and they wouldn't open that day until 3pm. We don't feel like waiting until 3pm, so we continue on to Dehli, and stop at a nice little joint right at the intersection of NY 28 and NY 10. Here, we talked with the two who had passed us. They had stopped at the gas station across the street and walked over. Turns out that the guy on the Suzuki was Jerry... a guy we'd met on this ride a couple of years ago. He asked about my F2, and I told him the story of the thefts.

These guys went off on their own and after lunch, we went on NY 10 to NY 268 and came into Hancock from the other side. Brief fuel stop before going south on NY 97, and then we head on down for dinner. No problems on NY 97 until we start approaching Hawks Nest... damn 'bago up in front that wasn't going to move very quickly. So I pull the group over to wait a few. PoPs pulls out his pipe to satisfy a nicotine fit, and I figure that it's a reasonable amount of time to wait. So we wait, and as we do, a cage moving slower than the 'bago starts its run up to HN. Well, PoPs still had a way to go with his pipe, so we waited... eventually we found a break in traffic to move on up, so we quickly got ready and managed to get through HN without having a cage in front of us. :-)

So we get back to Port Jervis, and start our run down NJ 23... after getting a couple of cages to move over (and as I said at dinner, had the vette not moved over, I would've gone around him on the right). We didn't have any problems on NJ 23... until it went from two lanes to one... eventually, we manage to get around some of these idiots, find our way to 517, 181, and 15, and stop for dinner at The Thirsty Moose. We arrived there some time after 6pm (sorry, Ray, if you got there earlier and didn't find us), and grabbed a decent dinner. We broke up here and headed home our separate ways.

Yes, I'll probably repeat this ride later in the summer, for those who are interested, though I think we'll leave the washboard roads out of it next time. :-)

Overall, I did about 600 miles, from the time I left my place to the time I returned... Think I've got an iron butt? :-)

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