Ok, here's the pictures from our ride thru the foothills of PA on Saturday Sept 20th, 2008
NOTE: CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEWIn attendance,
Fido-the-Cat on a 2003,
PhotoJoe on a 1987,
T Mack 1 on a 2001 and
Red Wine on a rented 2007 (or was that a 06....
)
So, Journey started Friday morning when PhotoJoe left the New Jersey Shore for a trip to Allentown, PA. He took the scenic route across NJ and then up along the river that borders NJ & PA (Delaware Rvr). After PhotoJoe settled into his hotel, I came over and we when for a quick ride around the Lehigh Valley, ending at the Mack house. A tweak of the clutch cable (was slipping a little in high gear), we had a little dinner my better half made, and a bunch of talking. Afterwards, I escorted Joe back to his hotel. It was a pleasant, brisk night ride. The smells of the corn soon to be harvested brought back memories of days gone by ........ then the freshly departed skunk
... so much for smells .... Fresh country air
Saturday morning, I met up with Joe at his hotel, 9 AM ('ish).
Here's a patriotic shot for you.
And the Hotel, Best Western, on the west side of Allentown
Well, after a little talking, and tanking up, we looked at our watches and realized we were running a little late, so running the interstate (I-78) was called for. the bikes did great, 70 mph (limit +5). We rolled into Cabela's parking lot a few minutes before the 10 AM rendezvous with Fido-the-Cat. A little stretch of the legs and then the mobile phone goes off. Fido-the-Cat had arrived.
Fido on the Left, Joe on the right, (click image for larger pict)
And a Bike shot, Photo Joe's on the left, Fido's on the right and mine hidden behind:
After a bit of talking about the bikes and a little route discussion, Fido-the-Cat led the way. We hopped on the interstate again for few miles. Off the interstate and on to the back-roads....
. What a beautiful ride. So beautiful I was looking at the awesome stream running along side the road.... (I think you can see where this went ).... I look up and there are Fido & Joe leaning into a nice tight curve...
Brake, Lean, Push.... made it but WOW... did that wake me up.... The rest of the ride to Harrisburg was great. Nice sweeping curves through the woods . All I can say is WOW......
We get into Harrisburg, find the Hotel and start looking for the Suzuki SV650 Red-Wine has said he was renting. But... Hey... What's across the street... A shiny red S40... What are the odds ... So we pull in along side. Then a person walks across the street and ... Red Wine!!!. Four LS650/S40's in a row.... I think I could feel the gravitational forces shifting from Montana to PA.
So... Pict's
Left to right, T Mack's '01, PhotoJoe's '87, Red Wine's '07 (rental), and Fido-the-Cat's '03
The Crew, left to right, red Wine, Photo Joe, and behind, Fido the Cat (remember , click the image for larger shot)
And, starting on the left, Red Wine, Fido, and T Mack 1
NOTE: here's where I mounted the camera to the bracket attached to my Windshield support. It's the first time I used it so I took pictures when I was comfortable looking down at the buttons........So, with Fido-the-Cat in the lead, we head to get gas. I'm not sure what I did, but I got the nice pump, card in , pump gas and done... but it didn't print a receipt..... PhotoJoe on the other hand had the mean pump.... He tried his card.... nothing, went inside and the clerk turned it on.... nothing, he went back inside, and the clerk then tells him that it's been not working... I will say, Joe clamed quickly once he got to a working pump....
So, on the road finally, a little late but what a gorgeous day..... We just have to get out of Harrisburg. Here we are at one of many red traffic lights.
Here we are finally past the city traffic and heading towards the hills....
Here's a movie (6 .6 megabytes) of us as we head towards the first hill .......
click > Movie 1 Note: I had these embedded but took too long to load, even with my Broadband connect. So, back to just a link to the movei file..... for the people with dial-up.Up the hill, near the top ..... Twisties warning..
Here a shot as we came down the hill.... More twisties.........
Here we are in between the hills...
Beautiful road. Great countryside views.... It's hard to remember to take photo's......
Another Movie.... (6.6 megabytes)
Click -> Movie 2 And another movie.... (1.5 megabytes)
click -> Movie 3 Then..... Vibrations cause the camera to stop working (vibrations, a LS650 has vibrations, who would think..??? 
)..... OH NO... I broke the camera........ Well, we arrive in Centralia.... Stop and do more bike talk.... Fido-the-Cat whips out his camera... YEA!!!!
But, a quick look at my camera and found that the vibrations had made the little metal tabs of the battery door loose contact... Tweak them and we're back....
Here is Red Wine , cellphone camera in hand standing in an area where we found the smoke weeping up out of the ground. It came out tiny little holes in the ground. In most pictures you can barely see it. The smoke appears as a sight fog to haze in the picture.
Here's one of the tiny holes.... It almost dead center of the picture..... And it was HOT!!!!!!! How hot.... Well, ride your bike for about 1/2 hour. Then let it sit 10-15 minutes, and then touch the oil filter housing.... That hot.
Here's a shot of the crew and the scenery
Now, it should be noted that the smoke was very hard to see in the bright sunlight.
Here's a shot of PhotoJoe standing by a smoke vent. Joe is standing to the left of the center of the photo. The smoke is about the same distance to the right of center and appears as a milky haze on the photo. These little vents were all over. They are the reason the US government bought out the homeowners. The vents were opening in peoples basements making the homes un-livable from the sulfur smell of burning coal.
Finally, the big 11 megabyte movie of the area, including a close-up of the smoke . The smoke is just barely visible.....
Click -> Movie 4 Form Centralia we started to head to Hawk Mountain sanctuary.....but...running late...a missed turn in Ashland PA and the 15 mile side trip changed the plans to just head to Cabela's. We arrived at Cabela's around 6 pm give or take.
We head into the store and after looking at some displays, head to the Buffet restaurant. PhotoJoe, having a 3-4 hour ride to the Jersey shore still ahead, passes on dinner and heads out, he arrived safe, sound and a little chilled at around 9 PM.
Red Wine , Fido-the-Cat and I have a sit-down dinner and talk. We head out around 6:30 'ish maybe 6:45...... I arrived home at 7:20 PM, just as twilight was fading....
A Great Day!!!!!!!!
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