Day 5 - June 10

Day 5 – Friday, June 10

I had a very enjoyable, yet short visit with by Brother and Sister-in-law in Kent.  Robert and I had an enjoyable breakfast together at the Villager Restaurant [http://www.villagerkent.com/] on the main street of Kent, before departing I helped him out with a few computer issues he was having.

I got going at 11:15, which was a bit latter than expected, but kept to my original plan of crossing the Hudson River on the Rip Van Winkle Bridge and cutting cross country up to I-90 around Canajoharie, NY.  As I left Kent and headed North on US-7 the road that I had taken yesterday down from Cannan, CT on US-7 was CLOSED, I would expect that the storm from late yesterday afternoon had downed a few trees, remember that I changed into my rain gear in a massive forest on the same highway.

The route that I planned took me Northwest towards the Hudson River via Cornwall Bridge, CT, Millerton, NY,  Catskill, NY,  and stopping for lunch in Middleburg, NY.  Middleburg was a very attractive town with a town clock and some good restaurants, even saw a few motorcycles in town,  perhaps they were doing a day trip South from Americade.

Middleburg, NY

After lunch and refueling it was time to get going, as I have about 500km from Middleburg to Niagara-on-the-Lake, so no more delays.  Canajoharie, NY was the home to Beech Nut, and still have a massive plant along the Mohawk River.  The plant still bears the trademark sign of “beech nut”, but it looks like only 25% of the facility is actually in use.  Crossing the bridge to the North side of the Mohawk is NY-5 which follows the Erie Canal all the way West to Lockport, if I had the time I would like to do that ride, but after about 16km on NY-5 I take the on ramp to I-90 West at Little Falls, I will be on the New York State Thruway for the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening, remember I still have about 400km of travel before I am home.

From Syracuse to Rochester, the temperature begins to fall and I first change gloves and later put on my outer jacket liner, it is getting cool.  Just after Rochester the skies darken, and there is the felling of rain (again), but other than some very light sprinkles, there is no need to change into rain gear.  I reach the Buffalo Toll barrier just after 7:20pm, so about another hour and I will be home, and it is still daylight, in fact the dark clouds are parting and there is a brief glimpse of the sunset.

At 9pm I arrive home after a fabulous but short 3 day visit to Americade in Lake George and a even briefer visit with my Brother, I am glad to be back, motorcycle performed well even in the 95F heat of Wednesday.