Plattsburgh, NY

I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since I updated the blog. We have been staying with Mark, the awesome victory owner, since last Thursday. He has a large fifth wheel with a toy hauler that makes a great extra bedroom and his hospitality has been as awesome as his motorcycle.

The weather has been marginal. The day we drove from Newbergh to Plattsburgh (pronounced Plotsberg) was miserable. It rained the entire 280 miles and we were wet and tired when we got here. We did manage to stop along the way at the Saratoga National Historic Park and add another state and park stamp though.

We had to get on a toll road section of I-87 for the first 90 miles or so. The road was in surprisingly bad shape for a toll road for the first 40 miles or so but it did finally get to be a smooth road. Drivers were very rude, there were few stops and there was a lot of standing water in the roadway, I was glad yet again that we were on three wheels.

The countryside here in upstate New York is wooded and green. The cost of living though is very high, groceries seem to be about 50% higher than elsewhere and gas is 20 cents a gallon more than it is in Vermont, just 8 miles by ferry ride across Lake Champlain.

Mark and I, along with two other friends of his rode over to Vermont last Sunday to a State Museum/Park and had a chance to see probably a hundred or so vintage motorcycles on display. The weather cooperated that day so we had a nice time. Von did not go along, in fact she hasn’t been on the trike since we got here. We rode in a car, actually Mark’s pickup, for the first time in over two months. Seemed kinda weird to get inside the vehicle rather than on it.

I had some maintenance done on the trike at the local Harley dealer and discovered I need new front brake rotors installed. They have had to order the parts so we will be coming back through here next week to have them installed.

Today we will be going to a National Historic Park in Woodstock, Vermont, then on to Maine and Acadia National Park tomorrow and the next day. It is about 500 miles and we will take two or three days to get there. We have reservations to camp at the park over Memorial Day.

A huge motorcycle rally called Americade starts June 1 at Lake George, NY and we may hang around to go to that but we are not certain. We need to get headed back west, or at least we are starting to feel that way. We have been on the road 75 days and have done 7800 miles. That’s a pretty leisurely pace over all although it didn’t feel that leisurely after we had done 5 days of 300 mile plus days in a row.