Started with a bunch of gear heads on long road trip where no-one knew what was in store for them. Hotels were booked, route were planned and all we needed was courage to ride and backing from each other.
Our Machines:
2020 BMW 750 - Sartaj (The Bachelor - The Free One)
2017 Harley Davidson Road King - Nagesh (The Pathfinder)
2020 Triumph T120 - Nitin (The Daredevil)
2019 BMW S1000R - Dhaval (The Moneymaker)
2018 Indian Scout Bobber - Barninder (The Eagle-Eye -BAAJ)
2019 Yamaha Tracer 900 - Kamal (The Tech Savvy guy)
2018 KTM Super Adventure S - Sameer (The Navigator)
Day 1 - 5/28/21
The not so fun part about being on a motorcycle is driving in chilling weather with 4 level's of body warmer that you are wearing. Memorial Day weekend came and brought the chilling winds & rain with it. Started the day at 4:30am with the first pit stop at Wawa gas station for quick Coffee to warm-up our bodies for the trip that we were about to undergo in 40F temperature. All the riders were super excited and me kept waking up every hour in anticipation of the trip. I know you might ask why 4:30am? Well, few riders from our group were working and they had meetings to attend. Cruising down the highway and enjoying our freedom for the weekend was the best gift for ourselves. Gas stations becomes meeting rooms and folks in the meetings seeing members in biker gears with the shocked look on their faces. As a group on weekly basis, we are trying to get better and felt communication while riding is the key. So, we decided to buy and install Sena50S in all our helmets. The instruction from Sena about group pairing were really bad and none of us could figure out on day 1 how to make it work, so we decided to go open channel and it drained out our batter really quick. The other reason for riding early am was weather. A big rainstorm was about to hit our destination and we wanted to get to Point A Hotel Ginnette Williamsport PA a old 100 year hotel. We reached our destination and carefully parked our bike in closed garage.
Day 2 - Love and Thunder
We started the day with some good night sleep followed with strong Coffee and danger of thunderstorm hitting our route. We mounted the bikes with our luggage, and it started to rain. We decided to ride through the rain and there was no going back. This was the biggest challenges as most of the riders are never ridden in this condition and weather was getting colder by the minute. Here comes trouble - KTM are known to be the best adventure bikes in the market, but their software can be glitchy. In Between quick start and stop my KTM decided to throw tantrums by not switching on. Heavy rain and bike not responding we are all dead in the water. Rule no 1 of troubleshooting (Sir did you disconnect and reconnect the power). With that rule we were able to get the bike started and we rode in the pouring rain through the mountains. Although a 200 miles ride, heavy rain and road condition slowed us down. We made it through our first stop drenched in rain and cold. We are all thinking was this the right move? (Well, few of us) most of us were well geared and enjoying this phase of life. After the first stop with bike and stomach filled came issue number 2 -Slow leaking flat tire. Combination of wet slippery road and flat tire was the icing on the cake. As a group we decided to carry flat tire kit. With another pit stop in a upcoming gas station we decided to spilt up. Group A - 3 riders to get the flat fixed. Group B riding to destination which was not very simple. One of our brave riders gave up all hopes and decided to tow the bike back home. But end of the day we all made it to our final destination and we had story to tell.....
Day 3 - Erie, PA
Erie... It was just breathtaking! The views of the lake at sunset, the smell of the wet sand on the beach shore.. just perfect. More than that, we were loving the atmosphere all around there.
We ended up staying in a Mansion, which on it's own was amazing. Built in 1915, the place was absolutely beautiful, with modern touch to a vintage house. The hosts were amazing as they provided us with tours of the Mansion, the places nearby & catered to our needs during our stay.
The Impromptu trip!!
3pm on the clock...and we are on our way to a gas station to fill up our bikes. The man with the Eagle (BAAJ) eyes spotted that Niagara Falls is only an hour and a half away from where we were. What next?....We quickly made up our mind...filled up on gas... created the route & got to Niagara Falls to check it out of our bucket list. Even though we could not cross border towards Canada to get the perfect view of the falls, the IMPROMPTU trip was completely worth it.
Day 4 - The Journey Back Home
With an amazing breakfast comes an amazing sleep!! Nonetheless, we had a 8 hour drive back home. Getting our gears on, warming up our bikes & packing the bags like it was our daily routine.
Finally rolled out of Erie with the trip in the back of our minds, talking over with each other about the beauty of nature, discussing what all we will miss & the life long memories this trip will serve as for each and everyone of us.
As the pull of our families brought us back to reality, the memories we made, the laughs we shared, the relationship we built will carry us through a lifetime.
.....until the next adventure
P.S.. Finally managed to understand how Sena & it's group mesh worked, so the trip was definitely worth that (LOL)!!
It was an amazing trip...! Looking forward to more adventures.