May 25 - Mandsfield PA to Vernon VT

Dave called Rene and they realized this Motel in Mansfield is the same one they stayed in a year ago and we ate in the same restaurant they did last night. A few bikers (Harleys of course, and Beemers, and an old GoldWing 1100 with 98K on the clock). This entire trip we seem to share motels with drill crews. There is a tremendous amount of natural gas drilling in these states. These guys put a lot of hours in so leave early in the morning and come in at different times at the end of the day. I am guessing they work weekends. We also passed several compressor stations, many with Duke Energy on their signs. As best we could guess, these pressurize the gas lines and burn some of the gass in turbines that run the compressors.

There are small oil derricks all over the states we visited. Some are rusted into the ground having pumped their last decades ago, Some are slowly pumping and some look like they may still be working, but are not running, maybe on timers so they pump once a day or something. You see them in little mountain valleys, in swamps, in the middle of fields so they appear to provide "extra" income for someone, or used to. We also saw lots of beautiful wind turbines slowly turning away providing electricity forever going forward.
We decided to do one big push and get back to Vernon. We swapped bikes for a couple hours. Dave's bike has more power and is lighter and is designed for on road, but can also easily do back roads. His is one of the most popular beemers and you see them climbing over mountains on back roads and loaded with gear on long highway trips as well. My bike is 17 years old and still runs like new. I have had it since it was new so it is like an old comfortable shoe. BMW makes really reliable bikes that last forever. My bike weights 621 lbs and Dave's weighs 504 pounds. I like the lighter feel of his bike but I like my nice wide seat (for my nice wide behind).
Ran into a Gold Wind guy who has been going to Americade in Lake George NY since it started. He said it used to be a nice small polite Gold Wing event and then "those Harley guys" took it over. I have found that most Harley guys are great and are secretly office jocks who don leather on the weekends. Harley guys seem to fall in 2 groups. The clean ones (nicely stitched leathers, clean bikes and an Irish Spring smell about them) and the real ones (a little too tan with a few too many tatoos and more a high school football team locker room smell). Both have bikes that are way too loud. Oh yea, the smelly guys have the babes, go figure?
We have been this last stretch so many times, from the Catskills to Vernon, that it is sort of auto pilot, but western Mass still is nice, especially this time of year. Just missed some rain and landed back in Dave's garage. We had pickled eggs, cold beer and a nice supper. Hot showers and off to bed. Dave said he clocked 2200 miles so not bad for 9 days on the road. Tomorrow I meet our cousin Sue to talk genealogy and then I head home.