Well, day one is in the books. I had planned to ride all the way to Cleveland, OH, but decided to pull off in Austinburg, OH, which is about an hour East of Cleveland. I could have gone all the way — and possibly further — but reminded myself to be smart and not push it too hard. Total mileage today was approximately 780 kms (450 miles). I’ll explain why it is a bit of a guess in a moment.
I want to write this about this journey in a way that helps those who may be considering a similar trip. While each person approaches a road trip differently, by sharing my thoughts openly, perhaps I can give you a bit of a perspective of what it is like to be on the road for as long as I plan to.
When I started out this morning, it was around 9 Celsius (48 F). That may not seem too bad, but when you factor in the wind chill riding at 110 km/h (68 mph), it got cold! In fact, within an hour, I began to shake from the chill I was feeling. Many of you know that I’m like a human furnace, so you can imagine how cold I was getting. It remained overcast and cold for the first three hours of the ride. In fact, a couple of times I began to question my sanity in doing this trip. I just kept reminding myself that warmer days were ahead.
For me, today was a day full of thinking and analyzing things. How could I pack the bike differently? Was I going a good speed? How often should I stop? I knew that the first few days would be a time of simply getting comfortable with how everything was set up on the bike. I plan on changing things around a little tomorrow to see if it works better.
One thing I had decided before I left was that I would try and get as much distance in today and tomorrow as reasonably possible. I wanted to get to warmer weather before I began relaxing more with my riding. And, if you’ve ever travelled in Northern New York, you’d know that really isn’t all that much to see. I know others who kept day one of their trip short, and use it more as a test time for the bike and gear.
I rode about half the day on secondary roads. The rest was on I-90. Riding the interstate sucked. I didn’t think I would mind it as that much, but after enjoying the secondary highway, and some of the small towns I went through, I’ve decided to avoid interstates as much as possible.
There is something about small town America that has to be experienced first hand. We simply don’t have the same type of feeling in Canada. Not that small towns in Canada are bad, they can be pretty cool, but as I rode through these small farmer towns, people waving at me from the sidewalk, I felt American. And that’s really saying something from a guy who is passionately proud to be Canadian. I can’t wait to experience more of these small towns.
As I was nearing the Buffalo exit on the I-90, I pulled over at a travel stop, and discovered they had free wifi. So, I sent Heather a quick email telling her that everything was going great. Famous last words.
I fired up the bike and pulled back onto the interstate. Right away, I noticed that my speedometer wasn’t working. Now, I don’t really care that much if it’s working, but with it crapped out, I had no way of knowing my odometer reading, which meant I had no way of knowing how much gas I had left. So, tomorrow morning, I need to make a run to the first Harley shop I can find and pick up a new cable (hopefully that’s what it is) or the mechanism on my wheel (whatever that’s called).
About twenty minutes after the speedo crapped out, I was stung by a bee. The bugger hit me right on the small part of open skin between my glove and my jacket. I think he stung me a few times before I swatted him to his death. Man did that ever sting. Three hours later, it’s still stinging.
Well, that was day one. Overall, a good day. I have no doubt that it will not go down as a highlight of the trip, but a necessary day. Hopefully, most of the days to come will provide me with far greater scenery and experiences.
I’ll fill you all in next time I have wifi!
