THE PICTURES TELL IT ALL....

Day #7

Date: Thursday, July 30, 2015

Departure: Farmington, New York

Destination: Ahhh.....Troy, New York

Miles: 210 (Arggg!)

RAIN! 

See rain gear

Interactive viewing - find photo bomb
Interactive viewing - find Jason smiling

 NOW THE REST OF THE STORY

Jason has struggled, since the beginning, to maintain his throttle control. He has had to squeeze the handle grips really hard to maintain speed. So when they spotted the Honda service center in Troy, New York they took a quick exit to purchase new hand grips. 

The purchase of new hand grips was successful.

When they returned to their motorcycles to continue on to Vermont......

Grandpa's big yellow Goldwing wouldn't start.....

They tried everything.....

Dead - Zilch - Nothing!

However.......

They were parked 25 feet from a Honda Service Center.

Now how lucky was that?

The mechanic was
Out To Lunch

However.....

He was standing behind the counter

But......Out To Lunch

And.....

He wasn't going to help them until his lunch was over at 1:00 pm

It was 11:30 am

At precisely 1:00 pm the mechanic wheeled the bike back into his shop.

After and hour or two of waiting he sent out the first bid of $3,000 to repair the starter motor.

Jason became very "Presidential" and said, "It is not the starter motor".

30 minutes later.....

It was a $178 bid to clean the dirty connections.  

Possibly a result from the torrential downpour of the morning.

Too late to travel any more today!

Grandpa booked everyone into the Hilton Garden Inn!

All the boys were happy!

Especially Ben.......

He had a computer with great band-width!

VIDEOS FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE

Really Bad Rain

Monday's Rainy Drive

This is How Wet is Was

Us and the Semi Trucks

Beautiful Roads

A Back-roads Town

Mighty Mississippi

Mighty Mississippi Again

Freeway (Okay divided highway)

Corn Fields

Palmyra Temple

Sacred Grove

Joseph Smith's Log Cabin

VIDEOS BY REQUEST

Ben Diving

Jack Diving

Jon Diving

Jon Diving Again

Fun Photo of the Day

A car just Jack's size

Go Pro Photos

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF OUR TEENAGE BOYS

Day #6
Date: Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Departure: Cleveland, Ohio
Destination: Farmington, New York
Miles: 298 measly Harley-rider miles...not so becoming for Honda-rider miles

One pounder (see the quarter for scale?)

 SERIOUSLY? 

Biscuits and Gravy potato chips?

PLUS.....

Ben ate

One foot-long Subway for lunch

A giant pretzel and

and a good portion of two cinnamon rolls

Jase's Journal

Grandpa and I have hit our hamburger quota!

Neither one of us can even say the word, "hamburger"!

Perhaps Ben has reached his quota as well?

Jon orders salads and vegetables
Jack orders steak

Jase's Journal

It was hard to get up this morning; 

Our motel beds were doubles and we have learned that big guys in a double bed do not work.

Ben and I have a wrestling match every night trying not to touch each other 

but to keep possession of the blanket.

The 14-year olds can sleep anywhere they can find because they don't have to get up and stay alert and drive all day. They just sleep their life away on the back of the motorcycles anyway.

Ben

Grandpa

Jack's $MONEY$ is Gone

He spent it all on 50 magnets as a memento of his 48-State-Adventure

He calls them his "Murca" magnets

You know? Short for "America".

Grandpa's Travel Journal For the Day

Downtown Cleveland

Mentor, Ohio

Geneva, Ohio

Back roads of Ohio for 2 1/2 hours and only 60 miles to show for it!

Forget that!

"Back to the Interstate Ben Stone"  (Doc Hollywood)

Back to paying the $Toll fees$ once again

All along Lake Erie

Fairview, Pennsylvania

Fredonia, New York

Buffalo, New York

Skirted around Rochester, New York

PALMYRA, NEW YORK

Back-tracked 7 miles to

Farmington, New York for the night

Geneva Church

All along Lake Erie from Cleveland, OH to Buffalo, NY

Fairview, PA

Pennsylvania Church

Rochester, NY

Rochester, NY

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS SECTION OF THE BLOG FOR PALMYRA, NEW YORK LOVERS

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF OUR TEEN-AGE BOYS

Look Closely at Jon's Socks!
They match Ben's tie at least.

Look closely at Ben's shoes.
It was either that or his boots!

What a great DAY 
IN THE LIFE OF OUR TEENAGE BOYS!

OH WELL......

Day #5
Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Departure: Hammond, Indiana
Destination: Cleveland, Ohio
Miles: 375 slow miles

CONVOY AHOY!

After 2 hours and $20 in tolls....per bike

After 150 semi-trucks per ten miles

Which equals to 2500 Semi-Trucks the whole time on I90

We said, 

"Oh Well......."

We changed our route and headed off on Highway 20 through Ohio

The biggest challenge is time. 

Maximum speed was 55 mph today 

Every 25 miles there would be a town and that would slow us down even more

And 6:00 am used to be 4:00 am at home

and 8:00 pm at home is really 10:00 pm here (bedtime)

"Oh Well....."

It was beautiful farmland and very picturesque

and we don't mind being on our bikes for 10 hours a day!

PIGS, PIGS, AND MORE PIGS

 STINKY - OHIO!

TAKING IT SLOW AND EASY

Stopping

Sightseeing

Having a blast together

This is what HONDA people look like at a HARLEY store

HUNT BROTHER'S PIZZA

"Oh Well"
....it does have "Statler" in the name and anything to do with The Statler Brothers just appeals to Grandpa

DOWN TOWN CLEVELAND, OHIO

BIG PROBLEM SOLVED

6 foot 4 inch body frame...

On a Kawasaki Vulcan 900....

Posed a little bit of dis-comfort;

When your legs are constantly bent  and there is no way to stretch out

all of your weight falls on your tail bone

so......

Wal-Mart to the rescue

Blow-up neck pillow

Tail-bone pad

Raised that 6'4" frame up about 3"

Just enough to take the pressure off

Happy Day! Happy 17-year old!

Ready for some more 500 mile days

More VIDEOS To Come

(must have a computer at the motel to edit videos)

Not happening

"Oh well...."

14-YEAR-OLD REPORT

They are doing awesome

No whining

No complaining

Super Kids

Grandpa's Journal

West Unity, Ohio

Alternate Route 20

Delta, Ohio

Toledo, Ohio (Ya know? Klinger from MASH?)

Highway 2

Sandusky, Ohio (Cary Grant in Touch of Mink, "You don't know the girls from upper Sandusky")

Highway 6 into Cleveland, Ohio

Somewhere in all of this they made it up to Sturgis, Michigan as well