I spend part of last week working in our Toronto office. I rode my motorcycle up and back which was generally good. The way up was better since I broke it up into two parts. The way back was a pretty long 550 mile, 10 hour ride. I was feeling a bit saddle sore….
On the way up I took Route 15 most of the way up to Corning, NY, but cut off to the east to sneak into Elmira, NY, from the south. I have taken that route before. It is a beautiful trip…especially on the motorcycle. I stopped in Horseheads, NY, where I spent the first 12 years of my life. I checked out the old neighborhood. That, and the house we lived in, looked much smaller than I remembered!
From there I went north on Route 14 to Watkins Glen located at the southern end of Lake Seneca. Lake Seneca is part of the Finger Lakes which are prominent in central upstate New York. The whole area is mostly rural and very scenic. It makes for some good bike riding. Sunday was the last day of an Indy Car race yet the town seemed pretty mellow and their actually were hotel rooms available right downtown.
I grabbed a room overlooking the laundromat:
and hung out at the Crooked Rooster Brewpub
where I enjoyed a few summer wheat beers but no Hefeweisen which they were out of, unfortunately.
In the morning I loaded the ZRX 1200 back up with my newly acquired luggage…wore the last set out…and head north up the western shore of Lake Seneca on Route 14. At the top of the lake, after passing by a number of old, gorgeous lake houses, I picked up Route 20 west to Buffalo. I could have taken the NY State Thruway but why pay the tolls, eh? I wanted more of rural small town America without the mindlessness of the super highway.
So I hit Buffalo and headed for Port Erie and the Peace Bridge. I crossed over into Canada without any hassle for the first time in over two years. Unfortunately, it is a fairly boring 120 mile major highway drive on the QEW and the 401 to the east of Toronto where our facility and my accommodations were. NTL, I had a nice suite with kitchenette at the Hilton Suites Markham so I was happy.
Work was a mostly intense training and orientation for a new network administrator that my boss hired for the facility. The previous guy was long gone to Kenya to deal with parental matters so we had to make do with what we had. Since I, of all my team, had spend the most time up there over the last four years, nearly five months total, it fell upon me to bring Sahib up to speed as best as possible in four days.
I think I did a pretty good job but then I also had a very experienced, easy-going guy to work with. My feelings are that he will work out very well. I hope that time will prove my feelings to be true.
On the way home on Saturday, I saw much more of rural, small town America. As I noted, the Canadian side of the trip is particularly boring less the barely alive geese and dead bears on the highway. It didn’t help that the first part of this journey home I was in a fog for about 100 miles. Since the 401 and the QEW wrap around Lake Ontario on the north, west, and south sides, I guess the route is susceptible to fog. It was a bit chilly and damp but I drove out of it into decent weather.
Driving down 219 on the east side of the Allegany State Park was one of the nicest parts of the ride for a biker. The coolest town I saw on the trip home was Ellicottville in NW New York. There were beautiful old homes on shady tree lined streets. In breaks in the trees I could see the ski runs of Holiday Valley Resort. The runs looked like they were practically in the backyards of some of the homes in town.
I cannot say that there was that much more thrilling about the ride home but it was well worth it. I picked up 322 in PA and followed that to State College and back to Route 15 in Harrisburg where I headed back south to Centreville. 322 was a mix of older road, super highway with 65 MPH limits, and construction. As I said, I was a bit road weary by the time I got home, but then…ride to live…live to ride!
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