Finger lakes day 3

We came from the finger lakes through to 28 highway, the weather was good until we hit the mountains, for the most the weather was good and had a food ride ,'ran into some serious rain on 28 , but it did not stop us for any length of time ,'stopped in russel camp to put on the rain suits , the road was great but wet until we got to the one side of the mountain, there the road was drying up, it was some fun eating up the twisty turny that gave you the appetite for more speed, slingshotting out of the curves. Ran into rain off and on the final leg of the day, Helen was getting ribbed all day about the weather, the outlook for the trip was calling for rain all week, like i said great until late in the day. Stopped at a Harley dealership that now is an Indian /royal enfeild dealer, kind of disappointing for kd and myself, Indians are really expensive. That was in Rome NY . Kd injured knee today and was in pain, hard time getting on and off bike, to make matters more challenging , helens knee was bothering her too. Anyway we got through the day and arrived at hotel around 6pm, nice place too. Went for dinner at la belas just up the road from hotel, lots of food, much for us to eat, back to the hotel to the party central room and watched the tube and had a beer while doing laundry.'laying in bed now and bid you nite nite.

Day 2 finger lakes

Left motel around 9:30 for another ride. Nice scenery.....winery after winery.
Stopped at Harley store in Itheca

Walk the streets of Penn Yan.

Just a few pics from our drive today

Finger lakes day1

Left at 8:50 arrived at Keith and Helen's they were struggling with attaching their bag to the bike. Whew we were not late,,,,,on the 401 mAybe 10 minutes and guess who forgets her passport. Hahmm
Maurice drops us at. Sydenham street Tim Horton's and off he went to get MY passport.

Stopped outside of oswego had lunch at Sunrise restaurant around 2 o'clock.......gassed up and on our way again. Route 6 to route 3

Passed through Geneva, new York ...... Route 14a was a blast......

Arrived at Best Western around 5o'clock in Penn Yan, New York

motorcycle tires

this is the front tire

note the raised section , it looks like the belt has raised, not good for handling.

back tire

when we left for muskokas we checked the tires, they were showing signs of wear on the tread, but were shocked to see how much damage was done in just 300 klics. the back tire looked like the front before we left.

Triumph rocket 3 tire (metzler)

had to show you people the tires on the cycle, just to give you a brief low down on the tires, apparently these tires were made in Brazil and there have been many complaints about them, now i know first hand, these tires have only 15500 klics on them, check out the rear, the one you can see the threads, the tires were checked before we left and i knew that the back one was wearing out, but to have it disintegrate in 300 klics into this last tour to the muskokas was a real scare.  I am not slamming the company , but there have been a lot of complaints about these tires from other riders as well.  The front tire will have to be replaced also in the near future. I have talked to other riders who have 3X the klics on there tires and have have no wear issues. I will be talking to the dealer on this , to see if the warranty will cover a new set of  skins. Might be like pullin eye teeth but worth the shot. happy trails
maurice

huntsville ontario tour

We left on friday aug 19 for a weekend tour of the muskokas, the roads were all you could want for a nice drive, we went up through napanee to the 41 highway which is a nice road, corners and hills that were neverending it seemed. The scenery was very pretty too, lush greens and lots of ponds and cricks. We did not have any problem with the speeds we were traveling, 80-110 klics on the down hills and some of the neverending corners. We went through the small towns of Roblin, marlbank, madoc , tweed to name just a few. We were on 62 highway  and enjoyed what it had to offer, a good ride for the novis to intermediate riders , there was nothing on this road that would challenge all your skills on bike handling, we then headed onto highway 28 which again was a decent road then hit 118 and went through the Kawartha area, again nice road, the area is filled with lakes and a lot of impatient drivers in a hurry to get to their cottages or homes, not the warmest place i have been for neighborly people, but it may have been the heat, it was gorgeous out on the bike, anyway onto highway 11 and into Huntsville. The town was rocking on friday night, we went to the cottage restaurant and had a good meal there. The place was packed, tables on the river was a real plus for this place. We thought that it was a nice town but with all the people there that it was to busy, lots of traffic and little parking, for a town that was only 18500 population, it seemed that it was like little toronto. Anyway for those of you that are looking for a quiet night, stay out of town, especialy this time of year. However for the roads and driving part of this tour , the trip was great, lots to see and do if you take the notion to get off the road, that was not in my scope, loved to stay driving and take advantage of the cottage country roads.

Muskoka

Day 18

Well we left Plattsburg this morning and it was a peach of a day, good weather for the final leg of our excellent adventure, we both had a good nights sleep knowing we only had about 6 hours driving to do, we put in the GPS all backroads and no highways, boy did maggie ever take us on whirlwind tour today, ended up crossing at Prescot? or thats what the sign said, we toured through the upper part of NY and had some real nice scenery on the way, those back roads have a lot of good stuff on them, shops and restaurants in the middle of nowhere, and good ones to. We drove by a lot of these with rubber necks, we stopped at Churubusco in NY at Dicks Country Store and Music Oasis, to drive by it looked like a small general store from the road- had we not needed gas and a drink we would have passed it by. Anyway on the bussiness card it said Groceries, Gas, Guns & Guitars. We proceeded in the store and found that it also had a snack bar, we went into the guitar\music section and what a shop, they had a huge inventory from mouth harps to ukes, he had it all-drums , pianos, basses, slides, all the accesories too. We thought that Gails dad would need to be there for a day to look at the stuff. As usual the owners were very nice to us. Back on the road again on route 11, headed for Yarker Ontario, again back roads all the way, farms , windmill farms and nice little towns that remind you of Mayberry RFD. These backroads were better driving than some of the ones touted as motorcycle roads, we started following the river and came to a restaurant on route 37, home cooked meals, fine dining at a fair price, we did find that on the south of the border they like to eat, and they serve lots of it, we made more fat cells on this trip then if we had stayed home and ordered out fast food for the 3 weeks. We came to the border to a line up, but it was moving pretty good and no hassles at customs. We headed staight out off the road we came on and let the GPS guide us to some beautiful  roads home, Athens, Lyndhurst and some places that were like villages off these roads. During our last half hour of the drive we were more cautious then when we left, you know that saying , 5 minutes from home and disaster had struck many people, we wanted to get there unscathed and did at 5-6 oclock, of course when we got here no one was home and i said to Gail, do you have keys to get in the house? Well you know where this is going, we went over to Gails moms house, we gave her a key for the back door years ago, got over there and they were gone too, now i am in a pickle because of the calorie intake over my 53 year span has shortened and broadened me in all the wrong places, so like a man , i proceed to break into our house through the basement window, i knew i should have gotten bigger windows 13 inches wide by 19 inches high, well you can guess that i did not fit in the 13 inch way, so i had to go in head first on my side and jockey my shoulders arms and head in, this is not going well, cant get back out the way i came in, to much of me is overhanging on the ledge, so down i go, with the missus having to go pee , i felt that this was a nessecary deed i must complete, it was a good thing that Gail had changed the furniture around in there because i tried to spider down the wall and my arms were not quite long enough to reach the top of the couch back and slid down, when i did get to the couch , inertia was at its best with gravity and the extra pounds i put on, you know that i was planning on exercising to get back in shape, however i did not, came down on the couch, arms buckled and somersaulted to the floor. So i make my  way up the stairs unhurt but a little slow to let Gail in the house, so she got in the house and noticed that the widow on the front door was open, did you open it? i replied no, that i did not touch it, so she says in her most controlled and measured voice that maybe i should have taken the screen out, it always falls off when you slam the door, duh! Well this is the last entry i can make for this adventure and hope anyone who has read it enjoyed the commentary, again i have to say this agian, we had met so many nice people out there, some we didnt get there names but had some good times and the tour of eastern canada , newfoundland was the very best trip we have ever taken in our lives. thanks and nighty nite!

Day 17

Day 17

We left the Holiday Hotel in St. Johnsbury and proceeded onto the last part of our trip, said our goodbyes to Karen and Eric and will keep in touch with them also. On our way back we stopped for breakfast at Maple Valley Cafe in Plainfeild Vermont , another great place to eat and reasonable prices too. We had the gps give us a detour we did not want, however we got back on the right track and drove through Stowe again and went up the Mansfeild Mountain through the notch, boy it's tight up in there. I had to stop where we dropped the bike and try it again, success. However we learned on one of our u turns that the bike was off balance and laid it down again on 104, so we stopped at Jenkins and Browns for a coffee, it was closing up, but the owner felt bad and gave us a free coffee. We repositioned our luggage and were on our way again with a much more balanced ride, next year a trailer may be in the works. Also stopped at a biker store at Teds Flying Hogs in Waterbury and got a pair of boots and socks. Anyway with some rough roadmap 104 North we made our way to the Holiday Inn at Plattsburgh NY, drove over some long bridges through Champlain. Nice ride from here on in.