In the Beginning

Driving a car, your relationship with the road is like that with a friend. Bumps are softened. On a motorcycle, the relationship is much more intimate, like that with a lover. You feel every small bump and dip.

Me, November 2011


This is the unfolding story of motorcycling and me. While I'd toyed with the idea of riding for several years, I'd never thrown a leg over a motorcycle until I was 51. Then the time seemed right. My youngest kid had finished high school so I considered myself expendable. I'd just spent two years with every waking moment was consumed writing a book. With it completed, I again owned my life and was looking for a new obsession.

My driving force in life has always been pushing myself, taking on new challenges and mastering new skills. I thrive on exploring new places and always prefer to be outside with the wind on me as much as possible. So I gravitated to riding.

As I contemplated this big plunge, I made several assumptions. One was that riding a motorcycle would save money given that gasoline prices had just spiked. A second was that royalties from the book would pay for a motorcycle. But most of all, I assumed that having put in thousands of miles on road racing and mountain bicycles, and manual transmission cars for years, I'd pick up motorcycle riding easily.

These assumptions all turned out to be wrong. What I spent on motorcycling far exceeded any savings from higher gas mileage. I didn't sell enough books to cover the costs. And learning to ride was much, much more difficult than I expected. But it was also much more fulfilling. In life, I've always wanted to be where I'm not. And I'm rushing to get there.

In the few years since I began riding, I've fallen passionately in love with it. The average American motorcyclist rides 1800 miles per year. I did 16,000 my first year, 18,000 the second, and over 20,000 in the third. I've continued to average 15,000 to 16,000 miles per year even when I began writing a weekly column that eats up much of my Sundays. At night I often dream of squiggly lines on a map. Seriously.

When everything is clicking--I'm alone on a winding country road, I've got my "A" game, the music is in a groove--I sometimes forget the motorcycle is there and feel like I'm simply flying. If you don't want to take my word for it, trust Alton Brown.

Luckily, I live close to some fine riding, with twisty roads over mountain ridges, large state forests, miles of farmland (which often requires dodging Amish buggies), charming little towns (each different from all the others), and lots of historic sites. There's always somewhere new to see. (Here's a map of my favorite routes and road food). I particularly like combining riding with photography--one of my other passions.

When I began this blog I was riding a 2010 BMW R1200R. In BMW jargon, this bike was a "hexhead" (named because the engine cylinder covers are hexagonal). So these are the "Hexhead Diaries." I'll update them regularly with stories and pictures. Stay tuned!

Friday, June 22, 2012

The Kingston Ride


My puppy had really cut into my riding this year so I'd been anxiously awaiting early June when Doug Lovelace and I were going to ride to a conference our organization co-sponsored in the lovely town of Kingston,Ontario.

We were anxiously watching the weather forecast as the date approached, but got very lucky.  It was a bit hot on the way up, with temperatures touching the low 90s, but certainly decent riding weather.  It was above the range for my beloved Roadcrafter riding suit, so I opted for a new AGV Topanga perforated leather jacket I'd recently  bought for warm weather rides.

The total distance from Carlisle to Kingston is about 400 miles with most of the way on I-81, but Doug and I decided to split the trip up over two days and take the scenic route.







On Sunday we went through some of my favorite Central Pennsylvania twisties, stopping for lunch in Lock Haven, taking a quick side trip to Hyner View State Park which overlooks the Susquehanna valley between Lock Haven and Renovo, and then hitting the Finger Lakes district of western New York.  After passing through Watkins Glen and miles of vineyards and wineries on the shores of Seneca Lake, we spent the night in Geneva, NY, a cute little town that is the home of Hobart and William Smith College.  After a long day in black leather, I did some serious re-hydrating at a pub near our hotel.


Hyner View State Park






The next day we scooted along the shores of Lake Ontario to Cape Vincent, NY, took a quick ferry ride to Wolfe Island (which is Canadian so we had to clear customs and immigration), rode across the island, and took a much larger ferry into Kingston.








After a couple of days at the conference (which was in a hotel right on the shore of the St. Lawrence River as it begins out of Lake Ontario), we headed back.  We decided to do the return in one day so our plan was to cross the St. Lawrence at the Thousand Islands Bridge, stay in I-81 for a few hundred miles, exit at  Cortland, NY, pass through Ithaca and Elmira, enter Pennsylvania on Route 14 and eventually pick up Route 15, which would bring us home, just north of Williamsport, PA.

While it rained the first day we were in Kingston, the weather on the return was even nicer than going up.  Everything was proceeding according to plan until Doug, who was in the lead, missed the exit at Cortland.  I had a few seconds to decide whether to follow him or stick to the route and I opted to take the exit.  With hindsight, this was a mistake. 

Once Doug noticed I wasn't behind him anymore, he backtracked looking for me.  After I exited, I pulled over and waited a bit for him but thought he had decided to just come all the way back on I 81, so I took off on the planned route.  He tried to call me but called my work Blackberry, which was packed, rather than my personal cell phone which was in my pocket.  As it turned out, Doug also took the planned route but was probably a half an hour or so behind me.  Once I got on to the "go fast" isolated rural roads in Pennsylvania, he was probably an hour behind me.

Despite this kerfuffle, it was a great ride.  We went through some lovely country, much of which I'd never seen before.  The bike and the new gear I'd bought for the trip--the AGV jacket, a new Frog Togg rain suit (which I didn't need), and an additional Ortleib dry duffle all functioned as they should.
Now I'm all excited about my upcoming Virginia/West Virginia ride.  Stay tuned.

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