This year I'm going to try publishing highlights of Americade 2007, day-by-day in this blog. This is the 25th year for Americade. It's scheduled for June 4-9 this year. The blog will also include my preparation in getting ready to take the ride to Lake George, NY, my observations while there, the ride home, and getting back to normal.
Blog for Friday:
Yesterday, we had eaten breakfast at a new place on Canada Street. They had a bakery. In the bakery they sold huge cinnamon rolls. They were all gone by the time we got there for breakfast so Jane put her name on a list to get a couple of rolls later that day to bring back to the room. The picture shows the roll next to my new Nolan helmet. I couldn't eat the whole thing on Thursday so by Friday, I had to heave half of it out. It was time to begin the trip back to New Jersey.
We were on the road by 9 a.m. with our full jackets and liners in place. It was a sunny day expected to have a temperature jump from 55 to 94 degrees as we rode south. It had been so cold at Americade this year. Starting off rainy it continued to rain on and off and the evenings were cold. We had forgotten what warm was.
At the first stop, the liners came out and the jacket vents were opened. By the second stop, we put on the cool vests we brought. The windshield vents were then opened along with the helmet vents and the front zippers to the jackets. We were still roasting, especially as we entered New Jersey and headed down I287 toward Freehold.
We had been told that a cold front was moving in from the west and should bring heavy thunderstorms in the late afternoon. That forecast was changed to occur after the Yankee game. In actuality, we never saw any thunderstorms at all -- just a lot of hot temperatures.
We arrived home about 3:30 p.m.
We had started our trip by riding 250 miles in a steady rain. We finished our trip by riding 250 miles in a steady sweat. Love that Americade weather.
This was the end of our 14th Americade. Over the years we've changed what we do at Americade. You can't do everything. We used to go on two guided tours, attend a boat ride with dinner, do demos, attend Tour Expo, and hit many seminars. After we did that for a few years, we stopped doing the guided tours and boat ride and demos. We concentrated on Tour Expo, seminars and talks, getting together with friends for dinner, walking Canada Street, and taking our own self-tours. That's the rut we're in now and we enjoy it. We cut back from six days to four days. Next year we'll go back to five days.
Each person has their own way to do Americade. Be sure to read my 10 Ways to Enjoy Americade. Hopefully, you'll find your own special ways to enjoy Americade and keep coming back just as we will be doing next year.
