We left our posh hotel in Stroudsburg, PA (where they thought Wi-Fi was the detective from a Hong Kong police show) and found a bistro (McBistro to be exact) with Wi-Fi and breakfast burritos. Dave cleaned up my spelling and grammar and updated the blog. We are liking being rock stars on these bikes. Just like my trip years ago, people see a couple of guys on bikes with Vermont plates and immediately they start asking questions. This morning we talked to a retired engineer and his wife from NJ whose son moved to Montpelier VT and is driving a beer truck for Farrell Distributors and loving it. He has worked at Xerox for 40 years and proudly told us Xerox blew it by selling the computer mouse and laser printer ideas way too early to cash in on them. Anyway, very nice couple. We were quizzed twice more before leaving this fine establishment. People love the idea of travelling on bikes. Vermont by the way gets kudos from everyone we meet (no surprise here).

I forgot to mention the billboards in PA. It is hard to see the countryside through all the billboards. My favorites are the lawyer ones. I saw one today with an attractive professional woman lawyer and a guy with a mohawk haircut and a clean shirt that specialized in personal injury cases. Everybody that has a shed beside their house has a "for rent" sign and a phone number unless it is already rented. I mention this because I need an excuse for all the wrong turns I made today, not that wrong turns are a bad thing.

So south of Stroudsburg there are some beautiful roads cut through the sides of valley walls (no billboards here). The plan was to turn south in Perrysville but those billboards worked their magic and we ended up overshooting it, but as usual, it was a lucky break. I didn't actually realize we had overshot the turn until later in the morning. When we pulled into Lansford I noticed the rows of identical houses in town and thought this was some kind of mill town, Later I saw a little sign saying there was a mine museum but thought it was one of those gift shops posing as a museum deals. It wasn't until we pulled into Coaldale where a gigantic piece of coal as well as rusty mining cars were lying around that I decided the museum thing was real. We backtracked and found a really nice, authentic coal mine. Go to http://no9mine.tripod.com/New2007/history.html to see the history.

Some guys bought the mine in 1992, unblocked the entrance and drained all the water out, refurbished some cars and put together a very nice heartfelt museum honoring all the people that died working in those mines all those years. Our tour guide was the grandson of one of the miners so he really had his heart in it. Nicely done. Send anyone who complains about how hard they work or how little they get paid here for a reality check.

So it was when we decided to stop in Pottsville for lunch at the Garfield (yes the cat) Diner that I realized we overshot our original planned turn south. We ate lunch (actual a pretty nice diner), and found the next road south and headed for New Holland where they make farm equipment (think big blue tractors). From here it opens into the unbelievable beautiful valley where the Amish live. Farm after farm of nicely manicured farms greeted us as we rode through towns with names like Bird-In-Hand, Intercourse, Leacock and Paradise.

I have always seen pictures of the Amish and have seen all the stereotypes (like that wood burning electric stove one), but I have a new respect for what they are doing here, although I am really confused about what I am seeing.

It is Sunday and they are not working, but they are cruising around in their horse and buggies, I assume going visiting. They are a happy and healthy looking lot and their children are beautiful with their facing sticking out the back door of the buggies waving at us with big smiles. Life seems pretty good here.

Tomorrow I hope to see them out working to see if they really keep these large farms manicured with only mules and no New Holland tractors.

So spent all afternoon riding all over this Amish valley in the afternoon sunlight, caught some dinner and crashed in our hotel room, with Wi-Fi thank you very much.

Hope it doesn't rain tomorrow.

I woke up this morning at Dave and Rene's house to the smell of bacon, A lovely young woman named Hannah filled me in on what to watch out for with Gramp (Dave). Hannah is in 4th grade and her favorite subject is science. For better or worse, she has inherited her dad', grand-dad's and great grand-dads sense of humor. It should serve her well (especially the interrupting cow joke..).

After breakfast we loaded the bikes, said our farewells and turned left from the driveway.Dave knew all the backroads to get us past Greenfield traffic and we were soon in the Bershires. It was a beautiful day, sunny with a few wandering clouds and a stiff, cool breeze out of the north. The Bershires are nice, a lot like Vermont (but not as nice of course). We crossed into New York on every tiny road we could find and ended up in Hudson on the river. We got directions from a well intentioned woman that was something like " go up here a ways and kind of turn left, then go straight and then straight again and then staraight again until you see the hospital, then 4th street until you see a chinese restaurant, no back until before the hospital and the right, then straight and the straight again, ...". We thanked her and never saw the kindof left, hospital or chinese restaurant. The nice lady in Dave's GPS got us to the the bridge to Catskill (the town) and my iWant app found the greek diner Dave and his fishing buddy had gone to 10 years earlier. I noticed the Kiwanis meets there every Wednesday on a sign so I knew it would be good, it was.

From Catskill (the town) we rode into the Catskills (the mountains) using dinky back roads. The view coming into the Catskills was fantastic.Dave noted the tops of the mountains were not green like the bottoms, maybe due to it being early and the growth not developed there. The Catskills reminded me of the Adirondak Park, in that it is a set-aside state park that people still live in. The 50's and 60's were definitelt the high times here. Many of the hotels and attractions are still there in various states of repair.Maybe the hey-day will be back when people start vacationing closer to home again.

It was cool in the Catskils but the temperature rose 15 or 20 degrees as we decended into Port Jarvis on the Penn border.The zoot suit is amazing because it handles all this weather without me even noticing.

Just below Port Jarvis the Delaware Water Gap starts. It is a set-aside with nobody living in it so it is a ride through beautiful lush greenery. The speed limit is either 45, or 35 which is really hard to manage on these bikes. Fortunately there seem to be Water Gap police all over taking pictures and handing out autographs to keep everybody within the speed limit. We presume that when budgets get tight, they lower the speed limit. It is rally a gorgeous ride, even at 35.

We pulled into Stroudsboro pleasantly tired, found a cheap hotel (with no wi-fi) and grabbed dinner at a nearby diner.

So we end the day watching Larry Cheski and the Keilbasi Posse polka on the TV and plug in all the electronic gadgets in to charge. Tomorrow I have to find some wi-fi and move this to the blog.

Found some..

Made it to Vernon!!. Cleaned things up at work and headed home to pack. Night before packing makes you work efficiently. Picked up some 20-50 oil because of the southern climes we will be headed for. Changed the oil, packed and headed south to Dave's in Vernon.

I decided I want to be a weather guy. You only have to be correct 20% of the time, and you still get paid. Never saw a drop of rain all the way down the interstate. Beautiful end of day sunlight on new green trees all the way down.

Got to Dave's around 7:30. My feet never touched the ground since I left my garage. Not too sore.

Had a nice bowl of Rene's stew (with a dumpling), cold beer and ice cream.

We looked over some maps, verified the Netbook picked up the cameras, took a picture of the bikes and here we are.

Looks like tomorrow we go across Mass and hit New York around Hudson and then into the Catskills.

Starting to feel like vacation.

Enough is enough. Yesterday it was 28 degrees when I left the house. Looks like we had our 2 weeks of summer and it's time to put the snow tires back on. I layered up with the new zoot suit, opened the warm air vents on the beemer (off the oil cooler), snapped the heated grips on high, kicked the garage door open and rolled. Not too bad. I never did get higher boots but this morning I tightened the velcro around the top of my hiking boots and it sealed all the cold air out. The face shield fogged up a bit more than usual but my Nolan helmet lets me crack it open just a smidge to let the cold air (ok really cold air) clean the moisture out. The beemer has an electric windshield so I can tweak it until I get just enough air to keep things clear. This reminds me of riding in driving rain years ago when I had glasses. The windshield, face shield and glasses were all covered with rain drops so I had to find a crack through all three to see the road. The joys of riding in rain. Someday I gotta try that Rain-X stuff and see if it really works.

Anyway, 18 miles later I drop the kickstand at work and I am actually pretty warm. The zip up pant-legs make getting in and out really quick. Worked a couple hours and then back in the suit to ride a few miles to play racquetball (suit off). Back in the suit and back to work (suit off).

Maybe instead of going south we should go north since the cold weather seems to be ok as far as equipment goes.

As usual, got to pack some last minute work stuff in, but all in all I feel like I am in pretty good shape to go. I am sick of writing about equipment and planning and ready to get going. Haven't had a vacation for a year and I think I may be getting a bit crabby at work so, guys at work, I am selflessly taking this vacation not for me, but for you.

OK so I was just finishing up my packing list and thought. "I should Google what other people take on motorcycle trips. I bet there are lots of lists out there." It is useful to look over other peoples lists but after a few "Oh, that's a good idea" cycles I decided I would need the vehicle at left to carry it all. So I called my brother and he helped talk me out of the microwave oven and yes the Snap-On tool box with full BMW electronic diagnostic system would have to go. As he points out, we only drive by motorcycle shops, sporting good stores, pharmacies, etc every 3 hours or so, so the lighter the better. and if I need something, I will find it.

He also helped talk me down from bringing enough layers for the sudden coming of the ice age we are bound to run across. This dressing warm enough Vermont thing is 9 generations deep and I have to adjust. It will be HOT down there, or not..

So here is the list so far:

Camping:

Tent-Bag-Pad-Dish-Cup-Spoon(Spork?)-Towel

Clothes:

Jeans-Shirts-Poly undies-Sox-Boxers-SwimTrunks

Mtc/Jacket/Pants-FroggToggs-Helmet

Hygiene:

Toothbrush/paste/floss-Shaver-Deodorant-TP

Electronics:

Phone/Charger-Netbook/Charger/Mouse-Camera-Earbuds

Other:

DuctTape-Zipties-Sunscreen-Advil-Ziplocks-PlasticBags

License/registration/insurance/copy of each-$$$-Credit/Debit cards

Duffel-backpack-bungees-headlamp-sunglasses-bike lock

-BMW toolkit-Crescent(for thumping porcupines)-Tire guage

Other-Other:

Yankee/Rebel phrase book

Do-it-yourself stomach pump kit (Daves cooking)

OK. Off to town to pick up a few last items...

So Dave showed me his Frogg Toggs and I had to order a pair. Today I gave them the acid (rain) test. I rode my Yamaha TW200 to work as I usually do on crappy weather days or muddy road days. The Beemer RT is not exactly the bike of choice on mud season dirt roads (heavy and really hard to pick up out of mudholes). So this morning it was pouring and I was actually excited to see how the rain toggs worked (or not). These is a Road Toad Action Rain Suit and the material looks like thick but soft Tyvek. The pants are long enough to go over my hiking boots and not ride up when I sit on the bike which is usually a problem. They leave small flaps so you can fish your keys out of your jean pockets and here I decided was going to be the problem (hint: it was not). The jacket has a hood that is designed to go under your helmet (clever) but I didn't figure that out until I got home tonight and read the instructions (typical males). Even without this hood, I did not get the usual rain down my neck I did with my earlier jacket. The jacket zips up the front and then snaps over a sealing strip to keep the wind blown rain from pushing through the zipper.

So I noted that my shirt and pants were bone dry when I left and decided I would check what was wet on the other end of the 18 mile ride to work. OK, enough drama. They are amazing. When I stripped off the Toggs at work my shirt was bone dry and I had a small wet patch a couple inches wide at the cuffs of both pantlegs. My socks were a little damp because my hiking boots are short so I gotta work on that. The color was less exiting that I thought but the orange is kinda classy looking. I think they will see Dave in his green Toggs before they see me.

Next thing I need to look into is waterproof gloves. Mine were soaked when I got to work and when I got home.

So being from Vermont, I am used to the norm being adding layers to stay warm, but yesterday it struck me (I am a little slow that way) that it is going to be warm down south. So the first hot rainy day I am going to have to try both the FirstGear jacket and/or the Frogg Toggs. The Toggs may be just the ticket for hot and wet weather. We will see.

Oh the picture. I need to talk to my brother. This is his idea of rain protection. May cut down on his gas mileage..

Ok, so the blog thing works. We have a little less than 2 weeks to go so I guess it's time to finish the checklist up. Oh yea, guess I gotta put a checklist together.

Dave called and said he slept in his tent and it has plenty of room for the both of us. I have a small single tent so will only take it if I have plenty of room.

I did another run today and it was pretty hot out. Those jacket vents are great. Did 100+ miles and the rearend feels fine. I think I gotta find a tank bag, not so much for the room but convenience.

A billion years ago I did a cross country trip with a friend of mine and we hose-clamped backpacks on sissy bars and it actually worked really well. We camped all but 1 or 2 nights in the 6 or 7 weeks we were gone so we had lots of camping stuff. A couple changes of clothes (wear one, wash one). Of course the ground has gotten much harder since I was young so I think we may be doing more "Serta camping" this trip, but if it's a nice night, good weather, good spot then camping it is.

I figured out a cool trick with google maps. If I get directions and get the little blue line, then search for "museums", I get my route and any museums along the way. Should work for anything. I am going to bring a small netbook so we can tweak the route as we go along. If the weather goes south, we may be able to ride around it.

The nice thing about this trip is my brother and I like to kind of figure it out as we go along. Last summer we did a couple runs in Vermont and just sorta flipped a coin at each intersection and found some great roads we never had been on before (no small feat when you have lived in Vermont for 50+ years).

Dave is bringing a GPS with him and I have an iPhone with a cool app called iWant. I don't think we will get lost (most of the time) and I am sure Daves GPS has coffee cup icons programmed into it.

I tried on Dave's Frogg Toggs and ordered a pair the same size. His rain suit is "eye-rupture" green so I ordered "surface of the sun" orange. We will be seen in bad weather.

My new zoot suit is amazing. I rode to work the other morning and it was 34F when I left. Other than a little leaking around my helmet, I was cozy with the liners in. I don't think we will have to worry too much about cold weather, but we will see.

OK for now. Guess I better start packing!!