Another rainy day!

Today was another quiet and rainy day.  I didn’t end up doing much of anything today because it rained most of the day.  I just hung out at Keith’s house and worked on my blog and returned e-mails.

Keith and I went to the store to get some groceries.  While we were there, we met Richard Thomas who we chatted with for a while.  He was a big fisherman.  He said he did quite a bit of fishing.  He gave us some tips on where to fish and what to fish with.  He was a very interesting guy.

Richard Thomas

We just stayed at Keith’s house all day and watched NASCAR and made some burgers on the grill.  It was a relaxing day.  I got a lot posted into my blog.

Ricky Martini and I went riding...

Today, Ricky and I went for a nice ride.  I rode up to Ricky’s house in the morning.  From there, we rode up to Albany and then Schenectady where we went to one of Ricky’s  friend, Vicky’s house.  They were having a baby shower and barbeque.  It was really nice.  We stayed there for most of the afternoon.

We left the party about 5:00 and went over to Dalton, MA where they were having a bike night at a the Depot, a local bar.  It was an old train station that they turned into a bar.  There were about 50 motorcycles there.  

Ricky and I at the Depot

We hung out for a little while and then headed for Keith’s house.  Larry was having a bonfire with all of the scraps from the trees that they had cut down in the last month.  It took longer than we expected to get there because we didn’t ride very fast because of the cold and the possibility of deer in the road.

They ended up starting the fire early so we only got there e=near the end of the fire. When we got there the fire was just smoldering embers.  They said that the flames were almost 30 feet high.  That would have been fun to see.  Oh, well!  Maybe next time.

The fire, which was about 30 feet across

We headed back to Keith’s house, ate some pasta and called it an early night.

Ricky picks up his new Harley...

Today started out with rain off and on, but the weather started to clear up later in the afternoon, so Ricky and I decided that we would go get Ricky’s new Harley because it looked like there was going to be a break in the rain.

We drove Ricky’s truck over to Pittsfield and the weather still looked good. We picked up his motorcycle and Ricky rode it home while I followed him in his truck.  Ricky was a little hesitant at first, but once he got comfortable with it he was a lot better.

Ricky riding home on his new Harley

We were supposed to got out later to Tina’s (Keith’s girlfriend) bar.  We thought about riding our motorcycles there, but after looking at the weather, we decided not to ride our motorcycles, but drive cars instead.

Ricky’s new Harley

We met Keith at back at his house and drove up with him to J.J. Rafferty’s.  One of Keith’s friends, Joe DiGiorgio, met us there also.  There weren’t many people there yet but Keith and Tina said it would get busier.  It never did.  All the bartenders said this was the slowest they had seen the bar in as long as they could remember.

Joe DiGiorgio and Keith

We stayed there for a little while after Tina got off work.  She wanted to go watch one of the other bartenders who sings in a band.  She was playing at another bar up in Saratoga Springs at the casino.

We got up there and found the bar.  The band was pretty good, but the crowd was a bit older.  Let’s just say that this was the first time that I have felt “young” in a bar in I don’t know how long.  I think the average age in the bar was about 60.  We only stayed there about an hour and then we decided to go to the J.T. Maxie’s, the other bar that Tina works at for a little while.

We got to Maxie’s and the crowd had thinned out.  Tina and Ricky decided to get a snack and we went home after they finished.  It was a fun night.

Going to get Ricky's new Harley

Today it was raining again, but Ricky came over.  He was going to buy his new motorcycle today.  He went to Ronnie's Harley-Davidson in Pittsfield, MA and met with the sales guy.  Ricky filled out all the paperwork, but since it was raining, he decided to come back to pick it up when the rain stopped.  He bought a 2004 Harley-Davidson Softail Deuce.  It had a lot of aftermarket things added on to it.  It looked really nice.

Ricky on his new Harley

When I got back to Keith’s, the rain had stopped, so we decided to go fishing.  We walked down the road to where they had two small ponds.  On the way, we passed his neighbor's warning about trespassers. It was a grave of the unknown trespasser.

Riley and Keith by The grave of the unknown trespasser

Keith caught one right away, but there were too many weeds so we decided to go to another pond that was on one of Keith’s friends property.

Keith fishing

We caught a few fish but nothing very big.  It was nice getting out and catching fish even if they were really small.

Me with a "huge" bass

When we got back to Keith's house, we just relaxed, had dinner and watched TV.  Keith made some spaghetti sauce from scratch that was out of this world.  I'm really glad Keith is a good cook!

A quiet, rainy day at Keith's house

Today was a dreary day. It rained off and on all day. I just hung out at Keith’s house and caught up on my laundry, writing in my blog and watching TV.

I’m hoping that the weather will be better soon. I’m really looking forward to making the New England loop. I just hope that we can get three or four days of nice weather.

The view from Keith's porch.

I know that I have already rode my motorcycle for over 4700 miles, but I really am looking forward to riding again.

Connecticut to Kinderhook, NY

I got going pretty early today. I drove through New Jersey and finally made it to New York just as rush Hour traffic was about to start.

I made it to Newburgh, NY about 9:00. I decided that since I was so close to Orange County Choppers, I would have to stop by and see the new shop. By the time I got over there, it was 9:30 and I found out the store didn’t open until 10:00, so I thought I would just wait until the shop open and then look around for a while.

Orange County Choppers Headquarters

Once I got in, I got to see a bunch of the bikes that they had made on the show. They were really nice looking in person. I only stayed there for about a half hour. I really liked the Spider bike and the Lance Armstrong bike.

The Spider bike

The Lance Armstrong Bike

I headed back on the road to Keith’s. The GPS took me to the Ticonic State Parkway which was a really nice ride. They don’t allow trucks on the parkway. It was tree lined the whole way and very scenic.

I finally got to Keith’s at about noon. It was nice to see him again. I hadn’t seen Keith since I was up at his house. It was nice to see him again. Ricky Martini came over shortly after I got there. We all hung out for a while and caught up.

I ate some lunch and decided to take a nap because I didn’t get much sleep last night. By the time I woke up it was raining. It rained for the rest of the night, so we just hung out and talked and watched TV.

Washington, DC to Connecticut

Well, today is my birthday.  I’m 47 years old today.  Happy Birthday to me!

I got up early and went to see some of the other people that I rode with before they left.  I went over to the hotel and saw Craig and Leigh Lewis.  They were headed back home and towing the motorcycles.  I guess they had enough riding for a while.

After I said goodbye to everyone, I called Chris Hoven and we arranged to meet at his apartment.  He lives on the 12th floor of an apartment that overlooks Washington.  It has a great view.  We talked for a couple hours and caught up.  It was really nice to see him.

Chris Hoven

I left Chris’s house and headed off towards Baltimore where I needed to exchange my tent at the Bass Pro shop there.  They were really nice up there also.  I just wanted to exchange the tent poles and they told me that I could exchange the entire tent, so I did.  They were very nice at that Bass Pro Shop also.

I left Bass Pro and a few minutes after I left, it started to sprinkle.  I decided that I would stop by one of the local hotels and check my e-mail and the weather and see what it looks like.  Much to my surprise, there was rain all the way from Baltimore down to the Gulf of Mexico.  I decided to wait a little while to see if the raid would let up at all.  It did after a few hours, so I decided that I would make a run for Albany, NY and try to outrun the rain.  

I made it to Pennsylvania and needed to take a short nap, so I stopped at one of the rest stops and got a quick 40 winks. 

It started getting pretty cold, so I thought I would wait inside the rest area because it was heated.  I think I’ll stay here until it gets light out.

Marietta, OH to Washington, DC and Rolling Thunder

I was up at 4:30 this morning so that I could get an early start this morning. It had rained last night, but thanks to my new tent, I was very dry! I packed up everything and got an early start on my way to Washington, DC.

I got caught in the rain about 25 miles into my trip. Luckily I had stopped for gas. The rain only lasted about 30 minutes. I waited it out under the overhang at the gas station. Once the rain stopped, I started back on my way.

The weather going through West Virginia was very foggy and at some points I couldn’t see more than 50 yards ahead of me. Needless to say, I went very slow when it was this bad. After a while, everything cleared up and it was nice riding after that. The road was dry and there wasn’t much traffic to ride in.

I stopped at one of the rest stops on Highway 79 in West Virginia. They had a group that was providing snacks for a donation to their group for the entire Memorial day weekend. I had a hot dog and soda for breakfast. It really hit the spot. I took a short nap while the rain dried. When I got up, the roads were all dry and riding was much better once I got into Maryland.

I got to the Pentagon, where they were gathering for the Rolling Thunder Ride, at 1:30. They were already in the overflow lot. I got there and they said that we wouldn’t ride until about 3:00 in the afternoon. We just had to sit and wait. A few of us decided that we are just going to go over to the Rolling Thunder area at the mall and avoid the wait. The police said that unless we rode in the parade we would have to park outside the area which was quite a ways away. We decided to wait and ride so that we could park on the inside and close the the event area. We walked over to the main lot to see how many motorcycles were over there. There were motorcycles as far as you could see. No wonder we weren't supposed to start riding until 3:00.

Finally, at about 2:45 they told us to move up and get ready to ride. We moved up and staged. We finally rode at 3:00. It was pretty neat riding through Washington, DC with all the people standing along the side of the road. It was a really neat feeling. We rode in on Constitution Avenue, over on third street and then back down on Independence. The disaster started at the end of Independence wen we all just came to a big clogged up mess. People that were directing people just said to “go this way” to the parking area. The next thing we knew, we were headed across the bring back to Virginia. It was a great big mess! For an event this big, that had been going on for as long as this one has, you would think that they would have things more organized. If I would have know that it was this disorganized, I would have avoided it and done other things.

I finally made it back to the mall where the event was going on. It took almost 45 minutes to get back there. I walked around for about 15 minutes and decided that I would rather hang out back at the hotel with the guys from the ride.

I went over to the Holiday Inn where everyone in the group was staying since I didn’t see them at the event. I ended up talking to Larry McAndress, who I ate dinner with in Junction City, KS. We had a nice conversation. He said the group went over there about 6:30 and they rode about 12:30 so they were out of there pretty quickly.

After we finished talking, I went over to the church where we were camping and found a nice spot on one of the couches where I will be sleeping tonight.

Finals at NCAA Nationals - Five Hamline All-Americans!!

Today was a VERY eventful day. Today was the finals at the NCAA Division III National Track & Field meet.

Before the track meet, I went over to S & P Harley-Davidson in Marietta, OH. I needed to get my 5,000 mile service. They were able to fit me in just in time to make it to the track meet. Jake in the Service department did a great job fitting me in so that I could make it to the meet.

Jake at S & P Harley-Davidson

While I was waiting, I talked to a nice couple that was getting a new Harley. They had traded up from their old motorcycle which had 75,000 miles on it. They bought a 2009 Ultra Classic. They were just getting ready to go on a trip and decided that this was the perfect time to get a new motorcycle.

We talked about the ABC’s of touring and how much fin I had with it last year. They decided that they were going to do that on their trip since they were HOG members. Good luck to them in their quest for the ABC’s.

When I got to the meet, I went over to the Shot Put area where Derrall King was throwing. He did pretty good, but he didn’t make the finals. It was too bad he didn’t do better. He was third in Indoor Nationals.

Just after Derall threw, the 4x100 relay ran with St. Thomas in the finals. They were only seeded second after the prelims. At the final handoff, they were about three yards behind Nebraska Wesleyan. Patrick Jager ran down the guy and passes him in the last 100 meters. They are National Champions! Way to go MIAC! (Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for those of you not familiar with the MIAC)

The next race was Brandon Gleason’s race in the 1500 meter final. He was seeded fourth going into the final, but he was only 1/100th of a second out of first place. Brandon was near the end of the pack during most of the race, but with one lap to go, he made his move and ended up getting fourth place with a time of 3:53.86. He was only .45 seconds behind the winner. I thought he was going to catch him at the finish, but he just didn’t have anything left. Brandon is now an All-American in Cross Country and Track. Way to go Brandon.

Brandon Gleason

1500 meters - 4th place

The 400 was not much of a surprise with last year’s winner taking the top spot again this year with a time of 46.65. The MIAC did have one person become All-American. Patrick Jager from St. Thomas was fifth in 47.98 which, coincidentally, was the same place and time that I finished in 1985.

In between races, I chatted with Brock Solveson from Concordia-Milwaukee. He finished 10th in the Decathlon and he won the javelin. He’s only a Junior, so watch out!

Brock Solveson

I also talked with Nakeisha Jones, a freshman from Tufts. She finished second in the triple jump. She was depressed because her farthest jump this year was two feet farther than the winning jump. She felt that she should have won it this year. She is a very determined athlete! I think this girl has promise. I think she will do big things in the next three years. When it happens, you read it here first!

Nakeisha Jones

The most exciting race was the 4x400 relay final. The MIAC had four teams in the final. St. Thomas was seeded first, Bethel was second, Gustavus third and Hamline was seeded sixth. I figured this would be lots of fun. I thought it almost was going to be like another conference meet with so many MIAC teams in the final.

St. Thomas took off to an early lead. Andy Marnach ran a great leadoff leg. Brant Leuhman ran a great second leg, but Hamline was still in seventh place.

The end of the second leg of the 4x400 relay

Tyson Molitor ran a 47.5 split and put Hamline in the thick of things. St. Thomas ended up keeping the lead the entire way and held off Bethel who made a late charge at the end of the race to pass them. Nebraska Wesleyan finished third. Hamline finished fourth with another great effort from Brent Nelson with a 47.2 split. Gustavus was right behind them in fifth place. The MIAC took four of the top five spots in the nation. I think this was probably the best finish by any conference in the history of the 4x400 relay at the national meet. Again, way to go MIAC!

3rd through 8th place - 4x400 relay - 4th leg

Hamline’s time of 3:12.66 was a new school record. They broke the record that I held with Dave Ryan, Mike Mueller and Brent Langford. We held the record with 3:13.77 for 24 Years and it was finally broken this year. I don’t think that record will be broken for quite a while unless those same guys break it next year. They have three of the four back next year. It should be fun watching them run next year.

Hamline's new 4x400 school record holders - 3:12.66

Runners from the 1st & second place all time 4x400 relays at Hamline

Wisconsin-Oshkosh won the meet with 46 points, McMurray finished second with 40 points and St. Thomas finished third with 39 points. Way to go Tommies! They had a great meet and with a couple more things going their way, they could have won the entire meet.

After the meet, I went with Hamline’s team and a couple of the parents who went out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant. The food was excellent and I even got to chat with the owner. He was a very nice guy and he also road a new Harley Fat Boy. This is a definite recommendation for a restaurant when you are in Parkersburg, WV. They are even starting a bike night on Thursdays.

After dinner, I went back to the campsite and I’m going to make it an early night. I need to get up really early and head to Washington DC so that I can ride in the Rolling Thunder parade.

A quiet day in Marietta, OH (NCAA - Day 2)

Today I slept in again. Hamline didn’t have anyone running in the meet today. Derall King doesn’t throw until tomorrow and Brandon and the 4x400 don’t run until tomorrow’s finals.

My new tent at the camp site

On the way to the track meet I stopped at some of the covered bridges that were on the way to Marietta. Highway 26 has a few covered bridges along it and they have been restored. You can even drive across some of them. While I was looking at them, I ran across some distance runners from Luther College. This was the college that my old roommate, Paul Quere, went to college. They were there for the track meet and they were exploring the area before they went to the meet.

Some distance runners I met from Luther College

Me in front of one of the covered bridges

I stopped at the first camp site which was closest to town and talked to a guy named Heath. He was camping in the first camp site and I asked him if I could camp on the other part of his site later that night. He said that was fine. He said he would make sure that there was a spot for me. I thought that was very nice of him. I thanked him a lot.

At least I know that I won’t have to drive twenty miles to the last camp site like I did the night before. It took forever since the roads were so curvy. I don’t think I got much over 35 MPH on the way there last night.

The 200 was pretty fast. It took 21.77 to make the finals. I think I would have had a pretty hard time making the finals.

The 400 was also pretty fast, but my time in the prelims would have made the finals this year also. It took 48.05 to make the finals. The only one from the MIAC to make the finals was Patrick Jager. His time was 48.02.

While I was there, I met Brandon’s Mom who I sat with during a lot of the meet. She was very nice and I had a fun time talking to her. I saw Brandon also for a few minutes. He was there to see the Steeplechase which a friend was running in.

I also sat with Patrick Jager’s Dad for part of the meet. He was a nice guy also. I introduced myself and told him that I ran the same stuff 24 years earlier.

The meet was done pretty early and I stopped to get something to eat before I headed back to the camp site. When I got there, Heath wasn’t there, but there was a bunch of kids having a party a few camp sites away. It really didn’t bother me since I am so tired. It looks like it will be another early night.