Day 1, Detroit to Erie Pa.
  1. Detroit to Erie Pa
  2. Erie to Wellsboro Pa
  3. Wellsboro to Downsville Ny
  4. Downsville to Holyoke Mass.
  5. Holyoke Ma
  6. Holyoke Ma
  7. Holyoke Ma
  8. Saturday, pick Jane up at the Airport.
  9. Holyoke to York Maine
  10. York to Conway Nh
  11. Conway to Woodstock Vt
  12. Woodstock to Fulltonville Ny
  13. Fulltonville to Cleveland OH
  14. Cleveland to Detroit MI

I made it out of the marina by 11 AM ready to jump on the super slab and blast outta this town. Everything was falling in place way to well so I knew Mr. Murphy would rear his ugly head before the day was done.

I was particularly happy that the new webcam configure had worked so well in testing the week prior promising a great show on the website. There always seems to be some sort of tripping block waiting when it comes to the cam hardware. Last year the new system was stolen the night before we sailed... The new system was tested and ran flawlessly for a week so I felt good about it.

I shot south down I-75 enjoying the new tires I installed the day before and was over the Ohio line in no time. Swinging east on rte 20 as planned, I made a pit stop in Port Clinton to see if my friends Tom and Mary were at their marina. The last time I visited was last summer and they were dry docked getting ready to sail to florida this summer. I couldn't find their sailboat so they must have pulled it off.

From there I fumbled my way around through the Cedar Point traffic trying to get back to rte-2 and ended up ripping up the coast to Cleveland where I fueled up. The netbook computer running the cam was crashing and I was having to restart it everytime I checked it. I was getting feedback that it would run a bit before frying out.

The only variable in the cam system was the 12v-110v inverter. some laptops don't like fake AC power although I had never had a problem before and have spent hours on an inverter before with this box. As I hit the braked hard setting up for the famous 35MPH right turn on the freeway in Cleveland I was suddenly in a cloud of smoke from the bike and lost power to all my accessories and had to bail out at the next exit. There I found some shade and tracked down the problem. The power wire to the inverter mounted under the seat had managed to get pinched under itself and was slowly being cut open until shorting out on the bike. This melted the wire from the battery through the relay switch I installed right to the new ground. My XM, GPS and webcam was down. I ripped all the still toasty wiring harness out and quickly improvised a power source using a powerlet on the bike and a couple of cigarette lighter adapters. This put me on the road with my comfort goodies but no inverter for the computer. Mr. Murphy had stowed away after all.

With a quick stop at the next truck stop I got a cheap inverter and popper it into the system hoping a different 110ac system might make everything happy. It did fire the cam back up but the eventual crashing persisted.

The next leg was the run for the Pa line. That went great and in no time I was getting off at the jump off point where I plan to wiggle through the mountains across the state on US-6. My trusty and worn out Harley Owner's Group 1988 Touring Handbook rates rte-6 as the best bike road in Pa!

That is where I learned that there is some major soccer tourney in town and all rooms for miles were booked up for the night. I shot down US-6 thinking I would find a ma & pa place out away from the chaos.

Well all the little places have long since gone out of business and the sun was getting low. The deer were getting braver and I had to hit the binders several times before missing a turn somewhere and was heading north on US-8 towards the Lake Erie coast and the big road again. I stayed with this course where I ended up at a Travelers Inn in Erie Pa. It was over priced at $100 but it was my only choice.

I have a road trip guideline of keeping my average motel fees under $50 a night. There are always exceptions though and this was one of them.

I settled in and headed to the hotel's lounge/restaurant for some dinner. There the bartended was overwhelmed with the 6 customers sitting at the miniature bar and spent all her time eating her dinner and doing mundane tasks. She never waited on me despite telling me she will be right over. No food, no beer and a bad case of hotel lounge karaoke eventually chased me out after 15 minutes to find other options.

I found a chinese take out place up the road while riding from closed beer store to closed beer store and got a Gung-po chicken off the danger it's so spicy we put it in red ink section of the menu . It was great but had less spice that a McDouble...

After dinner I settled in for a much needed evening of relaxation after a week of long hours and no sleep before the trip.

Tomorrow's plan is to hit US-6 again and ride till I get tired or it gets dark. This is a great road across the state and I'm excited to ride it. I am exploring power options for the netbook but at the vary least I can get a few hours of cam in today that I can loop here starting tomorrow possibly. I will have to fumble until I get to Mass where I will catch up with a 12vdc-19vdc converter I am going to order tonight and have shipped to my Dads.

Day one ended up being a great day over all and it feels good to look at the miles I covered on the map in preparation of tomorrows adventure.