Day 8 Recap

Woke up in Rutland which, from what we saw of it, was a dirty little industrial town (used to mine marble). We decided to pass on breakfast and just get out. I had to fix my tail/brake light, which has been acting up for a while. This was the third time, but it only took a few minutes.

The plan was to grab the first thing we saw for food. Of course it took ages. We were headed to the Adirondacks, the problem is that everything east/west there has to route through a pinch point between Lake George and Sacandaga Lake. And that means traffic. We rode totally boring roads stuck behind cars until just after Fort Ann. It was good to be out of Vermont, but the traffic was a killer. Road construction meant a detour south, but i didn't like the looks of it. So we stopped for a couple hot dogs and i sent some time with the maps.

We found NY 9L, which rides along lake George, and then dumps you into town. From there we strung together some roads that get increasingly nicer and decreasingly trafficked. We finally hit NY 28, which was great. We were behind ann SUV the whole time, but this guy was a baller, and he never held us up. We shot from 500 ft to 2000 feet in a few miles. It got colder, but then we hit our only real rain of the trip. It was only 5 minutes, but the temp was down to the low 60s at altitude, and we were freezing. We stopped off at a Stewarts to warm up and put on some layers.

From there we got on 30 south, through the lower Adirondacks. This road definitely gets top five status of all the roads we took this trip. Great condition, perfect for speed, no traffic, and beautiful. We spent a big chunk of time on it, but it felt like it went by so fast. We stopped for gas about half way through and ECG commented that it was more like flying than riding. He was dead on. If that road was 2500 miles long, i'd be happy to agree to doing an entire mototour on it alone.

We went from there to NY 10. This was much twister, and i was thrilled to get the chance to run Karl through some real twisty stuff. I wish i had known it would be my last chance to do it. I played it pretty conservatively, but would have really wrung it out if i knew.

From there we followed some recommended roads hat turned out to be total crap. We were about 25 miles from our destination (Amsterdam, NY) and decided to bail out and do a speed run down I-90 to finish off the day.

The wind had been picking up all day, and by the time we hit 90, it was awful. We were getting blown everywhere. It was more a matter of trying to hang on and keep things pointed straight than it was about enjoying the ride. We finally got to our exit, and i had to pull over on the off ramp because my shifter was jammed. Our nerves were so frazzled from getting blown all over the place that ECG forgot to put his kickstand down and dropped Connie. I've done that before, myself. Twice. We looked things over, and finished getting off the throughway, and started looking for our hotel.

I took a guess, and decided to try 30 north. 5 miles of crawling bumper to bumper traffic later and i realized we needed to be on 30 south. But these weren't any normal 5 miles. Amsterdam, NY is a shit hole. Carpet factories are the only reason it exists, but it looks like it does a healthy side business in crime and seediness. It was a totally unpleasant town. Probably one of the worst any of the 4 mototours has hit.

We finally get to the hotel, which we realize was right at the base of the interstate off-ramp (if only we had bothered to look left). It's miles from anything, directly next to the interstate, dirty, ugly, and the only people staying there are the Suzuki Owners Group, who are a nice group of people of the kind i never like to hang out with. Our hatred of this hotel is palpable. The lack of food, drinks, amenities is obvious. And we hit a 4pm, so we have a lot of time to kill in this nightmare.

We take a restaurant recommendation from the desk clerk (Olympia Diner: bad idea) and it's supposed to be close (1 mile). We go the mile, and it's not there. We followed the clerk's directions and we're on the spot google maps says, and no restaurant. So we start heading north looking for anything else. 4 miles later,we spot the place. We stop. It's awful. We realize we didn't lock up the room and get it to go. ECG waits for the carryout. I head down to check the room, and stock up on beer at the gas station.

We eat in the room. And drink beers. And finally decide  to head outside to the hotel's only amenity. The picnic table. The room is awful, so it's nice to be outside. But outside it's I-90, the school bus maintenance facility, the parking lot and mosquitos.

We played spades, listed to 70's brown rock, cursed the hotel, cursed Amsterdam and drank vodka and beer until we were drunk enough to be able to stand heading back into the room.

Seriously, that place was awful.

The only other note is that the magnets in my. Tank bag finally fried my EZ-pass. I'm blowing through all the tolls unpaid. We'll see how well their system works for recognizing vehicles that are in the system but don't register at the toll booth.