Got off to a slow start this year in part because of the weather (longer then usual winter) and in part when I went on vacation. My first attempt in a day trip turned into a cluster.

However and on 3 hours of sleep I got up with a couple of my usual riding buddies Matt and Bob and headed to Lake George for the opening day of Americade. It was a suspect day with 80% chance of rain but we said f*ck it lets go.

We met up at the Hartland Diner in Vermont:

https://hartlanddiner.com/

I'm a chow hound and clean my plate to the porcelain. They gave us so much food none of us could eat all of it and it was deliscous. We headed out at 8:30am from the diner.

It was an uneventful putt winding the backroads of Vermont rts 12-4-7 and thru Whitehall,NY (birthplace of the Navy..yes it is) catching NY rts 149 and 9L into Lake George. The 2 guys I was with were wicked surprised when we tuned into the Americade strip because for some reason they thought we were riding to Lake George and then heading home. I told them Americade WTF ? The place was jacked with rows and rows and rows of mostly metric bikes and some damned awsome ones at that. Anywho it costs 10$ to walk thru the fenced in vendors, food and otherwise. I'll have to say that my observation was they had a much higher level of quality vendors then at any bike week in Laconia I been to. None of us had any money but were greatful for the ice cold 5$ lemonades to quench our parch throats. No beer tents which sucked. It was in the low 80's and sunny. The lack of sleep and burning sun was kicking my old beat down ass pretty good.

We walked around for about an hour os so then headed home another way to mix it up a smidge. When we got to the juncture or rts 4 and 7 we headed south instead of the way we came in as I wanted to catch VT rt 103 into Ludlow and then 131 stopping in xxxxxxx,VT at an old timey little know Vermont country store called xxxxxxx.



What makes xxxxxx unique? Besides selling home grown lamb,beef,chicekn and assorted flavored beef jerky he's been collecting guns voraciously since the 1940's plus he took us down stairs in to his secret stash and showed us some amazing stuff including an original Civil war discharge he found in the attic of his home. For some reason he took a liking towards us and we were his new best buddies. Nice guy. He has a 2000 springer softail with less then 10,000 miles that he'd bought new, elevated in the store as homage to his brief riding days.

All in all it was a good day. Funny as we did hit some rain coming home just outside of Rutland,VT. Pulled over to gear up. Got back on the road and in less then 1/4 mile it was sunny again? WTF....

I'll have pictures in a couple days as I am having them put on a disk. Or friend me on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/john.a.henderson2 which was easier to post the pictures on for some reason? I'm not desperate to have friends on my FB page, I am quite content with the handpicked ones I have but the pictures are easierr to post there then here. No offense.

great story, I had my 1995 Americade sticker out last year to show someone and now I forgot where I left it - I was going to pic and post it - oh well - when I find it.

Lake George was one of my favorite places back there - I"ve had this refrigerator magnet since my last trip there in 1995 on my bike - the one I have now - long time...

Great riding up that way - I always went to NH by way of Troy,NY RT.7 thru Bennington RT9, to my buddies house in Hudson. Made that trip a few times - always enjoyed it - almost became a hood ornament on one trip - always use caution on those roads.

I don't have face.page.space.book.tweeker... My understanding of those sites is minimal. I guess in that aspect I'm very happy living under my rock

I was skeptical about FB at first and until I learned how you use it and limit access and not to just anyone. Not just any old anybody can see my FB page. I do not have strangers, anyone from work on it, old classmates or family, just select freinds and acquaitences. I only have maybe 30 friends compared to others I see who have hundreds and hundreds. Or the FB page is left so any old whack-a-doo crack head can have a sexual experience looking at the pictures of your FB Page. To me thats a potential security breech of privacy. I find it to be an excellent medium for staying in touch, more so then a forum as anyone can read stuff on the forums.

Cool Lake George sticker.

I looked all over for that old Americade sticker I have. If I come across it I'll post it.
I have my own thoughts on the FB craze. They come and go - I have a friend and he's always talking about FB. So I went on there and tried to find him. I guess he's going by an alias on there.
Personally I'm with you on the security breach part of it. Just too much information for anyone looking.

Meant to say that was a pretty good day of riding you and your friends did to Lake George. I only round tripped that route once in one day and I spent most of the day on the road. Great roads all around Lake George and a little farther north. Tupper Lake area was - last time i was up that way, pristine and nice roads. One of those places you don't get tired of quickly. I've started to think about a camp/summer home in a place like that...