Slept in (730) and it felt good.  Son’s #1 and #2 were still obviously dreaming of their wonderful father and not ready to end that dream… I treated myself to the fabulous breakfast buffet.  When I was done, I realized it didn’t meet my expectations.  The sad part is, I knew that before hand.

I got on the bike and went to the local Auto Zone store to fix my brake lights and a nice gentleman fixed me up with a new bulb.  Actually two.  That’s the way they sell them you know.  Not one but two.  Hey it worked.  Put it in right there in the parking lot and left.

Stopped at Walmart and looked for a map.  None.   But they did have a mid size atlas with 35% larger maps??  So splurged the $8.  Big early morning.

Just remember these blogs aren’t Che Guevara’s ‘Motorcycle Dairies..  🙂

When I got back to the hotel the boy’s were just finishing their breakfast  .  We loaded the bikes and decided on heading to a state park that contained a collapsed railroad bridge over a gorge…  Very cool crisp morning.  Bright and sunny.  We got to the next town and I was informed by those following me that my tail light was not working again.  Off to the side and I pulled out the tools and put the other bulb in.  Now I know why they sell two.  Another 15-20 miles and the light was out again.  I only bought two.  After 20 or so miles I came across a auto parts store.  I explained my predicament to the gentleman there.  He said,’  I don’t know why they sold you that..  That’s a 6 volt bulb.  You need a 12 volt.’   I got one for 89 cents, yes just one.  It worked all day long.  What a concept.

So as I was winding through the beautiful (and I mean that sincerely) countryside, I was leaning through a curve and came upon a rather large buzzard feeding on some unfortunate creature that couldn’t cross the road correctly.  He (it could of been a she) took off and tried to out fly the bike. He turned his head around to see how he was doing and he suddenly realized that his plan wasn’t going to happen.  He tried gaining altitude.  Only by ducking and tucking down behind my windscreen did I miss him.  The wing span on that thing was huge.   Stupid bird.

Rural Pennsylvania is just beautiful.  Great roads.  Curves, hills, rivers, hardwood forests.  Lots of small businesses folks run out of their homes.  Neat farms tucked in the valleys. Just great biking.  Cool day.  When the clouds covered the sun, it was plain cold and windy.  When the sun was out, awesome.

Got to the state park.  Neat railroad trestle bridge.  Built in 90 days in the 1880’s.  Taller than the Statue of Liberty (that was in the information center).  Destroyed by a tornado in 2004.  Amazing.  So an interesting side story here.  There was a wedding party at the end of the part of the trestle still standing.   They were waiting for the beautiful bride.  During their downtime, we went and gawked, took pics etc.  As we were walking back, the lady minister was also walking back.  In conversation, I found out she (the minister) had been waiting for almost two hours for the bride to walk down the trestle.  As we neared the information center the minister was telling the bride to get the show on the road.  The bride provided some lame excuses.  As the minister turned around and the bride provided a gesture.  She will be somebody’s princess.  After we went to the info center, walked around, used the restrooms etc., and came back out,  they were still staging.

We sat out at a picnic table in the sun to decide – now what?.  I took the opportunity to have a fine cigar and people watch.  We figured that, believe or not, we should start thinking about end of day.  It was after 3 and no idea where should go and spend the night.  I was in no hurry.  It was a real nice cigar.  Ok, we had a plan.  Mansfield, PA.  It was in bold type on the map.  It would have hotels.  It was two hours or so away.  I forgot to mention, they had PA maps at the info center.  We figured out the Walmart atlas is pretty useless.We saddled up and scooted.  By that time it was 4.  It became cloudy and the temps dropped.  Wind picked up.  We had to stop for fuel.  We got to Mansfield around 630.  We were very cold. I had my jacket zipped up to my chin, my lined gloves, one of those things you put on over your head and under your helmet. Still cold. Alex and Jon the same way.

Checked in to a local hotel, dropped our stuff and went to a local brewery for dinner.  It was unanimous and we awarded a score of extremely mediocre.  A stop at a local spirits store for libations have found us back at the hotel, trying to decide what to do tomorrow, drinking more than we should, laughing and watching mindless stuff on tv.   A perfect night and an end to a delightful day.

Life is good