Hey all,
Sorry I've been so scarce in club circles the last few months! Busy as hell with everything...Anyway, I too made the rally-trip and it was great seeing some of you there!
When I do trips to the national (and this was my fifth), I generally slab it to and from the region where the rally is and maximise the time in the region to explore and have fun.
Here's basically what I did:
8 July, Friday: left after work and got to Charlotte, but got there late due to weather and other minor technical glitches.
9 July, Saturday: got to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre PA, including a side-trip to Centralia PA, the abandoned town under which a coal mine has been burning for 50 years.
10 July, Sunday: crossed into Canada at the Thousand Islands Bridge, checked-into Charleston Lake Provincial Park, rode down into Lansdowne to try some real authentic poutine.
11 July, Monday: rode down to Kingston ON where I had some new tires fitted at a great little hole-in-the-wall shop on the outskirts of town, where the proprietor couldn't believe I rode up from Georgia ("Doin' a little touring, eh?"). Explore Kingston a bit, then spend most of the day on Wolfe Island, which I got to by ferry.
12 July, Tuesday: Spent much of the day hiking the trails of CLPP.
13 July, Wednesday: packed-up and left CLPP, headed back over the Thousand Islands Bridge, and down then west to Das Rally! Arrived 45 minutes after my volunteer-shift in Registration was supposed to start, but the team chair was totally OK with it and told me to go set up my tent before I jump in to welcoming rally-goers. Had a great shift, and later enjoyed The Sauce Boss' performance.
14 July, Thursday: my good friend Gene from Iowa arrived. I hadn't seen him in person since I think Johnson City, and yet seen the K1200GT he picked up a few years ago. But before he arrived I ride over into Canada and up to Port Dalhousie, a mere 40 miles from the rally, on the shore of Lake Ontario. This is the town where Neil Peart grew up, and I visited Lakeside Park which he described in a song of the same name on an early Rush album, and also got a picture of the church where Neil played in front of an audience for the first time at age 13.
15 July, Friday: mostly hung around the rally, made a short trip offsite to try to find a new faceshield for my helmet as it got rather scratched-up a few days earlier. No joy on that mission.
16 July, Saturday: rode up to West Seneca, about 10-15 minutes from the rally, to have a bite at Schwabl's, who invented the 'beef on weck' sammich that is a local favourite around Buffalo and which at least one rally food-vendor was selling. Back to the rally to hang-out at the MOA Forum gathering in the Bier Garten. Closing ceremony after that...they got my name wrong AGAIN, as they do every year! Dangit...(LOL). Finished the evening with a fabulous performance by Paul Thorn,
17 July, Sunday: pack up and head out. Got to Wytheville VA, and got to see (and ride across) the New River Gorge Bridge (the payoff of telling the GPS to avoid toll-roads!). Met a group of older gents on Harleys at my hotel who invited me to dinner with them at the steak-house next door, and they even picked-up my check! They were all employed by a company in an industry relevant to mine, and did a moto-trip annually. Nice fellas!
18 July, Monday: Got home mid-afternoon, but not before the heavens opened-up and soaked me a mere twenty miles from home.
Some stats: Ten (and a half) days, 2682 miles, somewhere north of 13 tanks of fuel, half a quart of oil, new tires halfway through, 8 states, 1 Canadian province (entered twice, at different crossings), 2 ferry-boat rides, 7 straight nights sleeping in a tent in 2 different countries, countless friends caught-up with after years of not seeing them in person, a few new friends made, no injuries worse than sunburn, no door-prizes won at the rally, no 'performance-awards' given by law enforcement.
Wildlife: Saw a black bear in PA (next to the PA Turnpike, of all places!), a fox, an osprey, red squirrels, black squirrels, and a big-ass snake all in Canada.
My pictures are online in a gallery but not captioned yet, although if you've read this post you'll get the gist:
https://vegomatic.smugmug.com/Hamburg-Rally-Trip-2016/
In the seven years since my last national, things sure have progressed! I was quite impressed at how well-run and well-featured this rally was.
I doubt that I'll be able to ride to Salt Lake City next year, but I'm tempted to fly up for it.