Every two years, the style of Karate that I study holds an international tournament. This year, the Isshin-ryu World Karate Association Championdship Tournament was held in Pittsburgh, PA on June 18 – 20, 2009. Eight people from the the Isshin-ryu School of Karate (where I study) attended. Instead of driving out with the group on Thursday, I decided to take a few days off work, and turn it into a week-long motorcycle trip. I hadn’t been on a long trip in a few years, and a week on the bike sounded like a great idea. Even better, I could visit some family and friends along the way.
The plan was to start out on the afternoon of Saturday, 6/13 from Hackettstown, NJ, and take a leisurely ride up to Middlesex, NY to visit my brother, who lives near Canandaigua lake. Then, head up to Hamburg, NY to spend some time with Sensei Mike Downs at the Defensive Arts Dojo. After that, take a few days to ride around the forests of Northern, PA before arriving in Pittsburgh on Thursday. The tournament ended on Saturday, so I’d just ride straight home on Sunday. Fortunately, I was able to stick mostly to the plan, but Mother Nature had a few surprises in store.
Surprise #1: On the afternoon I had planned to start, it was raining. Not just a little rain, either, and it was getting dark. So, instead of a nice, leisurely ride to my brother’s with a hotel stop along the way, I was going to have to make it there as fast as I could. So, I left around 8am and rode straight through ’till 2pm. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day, and a really nice ride. We spent the afternoon Kayaking on Canandaigua lake, and grilled some ribs for dinner. Good to see my brother, sister-in-law and nephew. The next morning, I gave Brandon a ride to school on my Harley, which was fun for both of us.
Day 2 (Monday) was another gorgeous day for riding. I went South through Naples, and West through Dansville to Nunda. There’s a big hill between those two towns, and twenty years ago Eric and I rode that hill on our bicycles. It was the most grueling hill climb I’ve ever done that took us about 4 hours to go up, and about 15 minutes to ride down the other side. I hit 55 MPH on my bicycle (which is a pretty dumb thing to do while loaded down with 3 days of camping gear). On the motorcycle, that killer hill only took about 20 minutes. The rest of the day consisted of a ride through Letchworth State Park and a straight shot over to Hamburg for Karate class. The Defensive Arts folks are a great group of people that I’ve become friends with over the years. Thanks to Sensei Mike and everyone there for their hospitality (and to Racer, Wilson and the cats for allowing me to stay in their guestroom.)
Day 3 (Tuesday) started out nicely–down to the forest areas of Northern, PA. Through Ellicotville, Olean, Shinglehouse and Coudersport on my way to Wellsboro. I pulled in to a motel in Wellsboro. I was planning to drop off my stuff, and head over to Pine Creek Gorge (AKA the Grand Canyon of Pennsyvania), but surprise #2 was waiting for me in the parking lot in the form of a roofing nail in my back tire. Unfortunately, that tire only had 300 miles on it. Fortunately, it didn’t go flat while I was riding. A call to the Harley Owners’ Group got a flatbed towtruck to arrive after about 90 minutes, and they took me over to Cox’s Northern Tier Harley-Davidson, who got me a new tire and back on the road in about 3 hours. So much for the PA Grand Canyon today. Dinner at the local steak place was good. I needed a break.
Day 4 (Wednesday) brought surprises #3 and #4–a full day of rain, followed by tornado warnings near Pittsburgh. It started out as a drizzle on my way to Pine Creek Gorge, which was still nice. I’ll have to go back there for a real visit sometime. The plan was to ride through the Allegheny National Forest along several scenic roads, then find a hotel. The going was slow. The roads were slick. The visibility was poor. But, I did have to get to Pittsburgh by Thursday, so I had to make some progress today. I finally got near Clarion, PA, found a hotel and stopped for the night. Bought dry socks at the local Walmart, and headed to the laundromat to wash and, more importantly, dry all my clothes. I spent the evening eating takeout chinese food, and watching the storm–tornado warnings, lightning strikes and all. Thanks to the woman at the Hampton Inn that let me park my bike next to the building, under good cover for the night.
Day 5 (Thursday) was a short day, just down to Pittsburgh from Clarion. It took about 90 minutes, through some nice rolling hills. Getting close to Pittsburgh, traffic got a little hairy, but it was still just a short. Quick ride. Surprise #5, rained for the last 30 minutes, and I had to pull over on the highway to put my raingear on again. By that time, I was numb to it.
Day 6 and 7 (Friday and Saturday) were spent at the Karate Tournament. Separate post to come later.
Day 8 (Sunday) was a really long day from Pittsburgh back home. Started off nice enough, but about 90 minutes outside of Pittsburgh, the rains came again. No surprise this time, just a long, 6 hour ride back in the rain on boring highways. Unpleasant, but uneventful. The rain letup about Allentown, but Surprise #6 was actually the swarm of bees I rode through there. Fortunately, between the windshield, the helmet, the faceshield, the leather and the raingear, there was no getting stung, but the bike and I took on the nice yellow sheen of bee guts. The drivers in the cars on either side of me just shook their heads and laughed, sympathetically, I hope.
Through all that I still managed to have a good time, but I wouldn’t describe it as the relaxing vacation I had hoped it would be. Maybe next time.