17 Aug 2008, 12:23 pm / Tired
It all began in the early hours of a Saturday. Not just any Saturday. Saturday August 16th, 2008. I had been told by a friend that I simply must, emphasis on must, go on a ride with Armadillo/Greg. His next one coming up is set for Saturday and of course if I must, I must. It would not only be a great time but also break two of Sunny and Tyke’s previous records. So it is Saturday morning and I find myself going the distance, though not as far as some, to go on a ride that will let me explore some more. The meet time is between 8:30am and 9am at a Park and Ride. Well after some long deliberation, checking the net for that park and ride and finding it in the GPS I decide it’s a go! So by my calculations I must get up at 6:30am be out of the house by 7, spring Tyke and be on the road by 7:30. Done, done and done. I did have my camera out for my not so wonderful slap trip to the Park and Ride… It feels weird to be moving and you look at your GPS unit and wham! You see your supposed to be underwater!! What what what!! It is a good thing I was in the tunnel! Haha!
 Playing with Shadows
 
Saw this and was like wow… Could you fit anymore on that truck? 
It had three different things on it. The gazebo was like the caboose! I was the first to arrive and so I played around… I suppose the question at this point is whether or not Sunny could leave the camera alone when stopped… That would be rhetorical. 
Someone finally showed up as I was finishing up and I got to meet Scott. The rest slowly trickled in. One even passed us and went the wrong way… hummm 
Dave’s bike and Tyke
 Jason, Scott, Greg, and Dave 
Ahh the lost one is found, after Jason had to go fetch him and many games of phone tag…
 So we are going to be off. Greg is going to lead the group and I will sweep. I figure this is good. I have a GPS so if we get lost I can at least find our way somewhere and Greg has my number. I also like this idea because no matter how modest those Motardies are they can always kick Tyke’s and my butts on the road. It was a good choice as you will soon find out… List of Escorts:
Armadillo – Greg Scott HondaHawk – Jason DrnkMonkey – Chris Dbomb1050 – Dave John Windblown – James Let us get onto the road!
 And they are off! Proof that I found the right location in the group, and we are on a good surfaced road, for now…
 Mild means so many different things. Truly. Throughout this ride you will see the gents at a distance or up close. If it is up close they have either A: Stopped to wait at one stop/turn or another, or B: Got stuck behind a car. This truly was a group that I would recommend to anyone as it didn’t matter your pace they always waited and if the wait was to long they sent someone back for you. I won’t name any names, Chris, but some of us are directionally challenged. Either way we always found our way back to the group. 
Ma! Them thar Mountains again!!
 Corn fields, still good roads!
 Some trees
 Open roads again
 Erp! Spoke to soon! One lane road!
 Keep a look out! Though I didn’t see any on the road it is still nice to have the warning, we are back on two lane paved roads too!
 Relatively clear skies 
They really do go the distance! And their gone!
 Those mountains are teasing me again!
 My pocket- hehe
 With this photo I realize I need to work on my timing but I was excited at what I saw ahead that I forgot I had a camera and took the photo to soon! This is the entrance sign, you can kind of see it off on the right, to Loys Station Covered Bridge! One of the few covered bridges in Maryland! And we found it without me mentioning it! Whoo hoo!
 
We didn’t stop to play here, which would have been nice but now I know where it is I can go back. A railroad bridge, still on good roads! 
I have to stop thinking about the roads. I mean really… a thing to note about this road is it is paved but covered by gravel. Yes Gravel! I didn’t get a close up of it.
 At the crest of the above road I looked out and saw…
 I wished I had more time to take more photos of this valley it was very pretty but I knew the others would be waiting for me and might think terrible things had happened like I got attacked by bigfoot or the UFO had abducted me, you know something like that. I couldn’t let my escorts worry so I just snapped that one photo and moved on. One more picture of the gravel road
 Off again!
 We were coming into town and there was a corner you had to go through to get to it and as I start rounding it, so you know it’s not exactly a blind turn, this van pulls out and cuts me off from the rest! He saw me coming too I know he did because I looked into his face… I snapped a picture so I would remember that yes everyone is out to get me. (Yes I blocked out his license plate too. I am not that angry at the guy)
 We were riding along and we got stopped at a light and I look forward to see Chris scrambling for his camera in his tank bag. I wonder what the big deal is and look over. I think this was it but… I can’t understand why … Tehe! Kidding, about the understanding part…
 Back into the trees!
 This hwy again! (See the Seeking the Shoe House)
 Chris trying to be a sneaky photo ninja and get James
 James is not to be fooled with grasshopper! Only a true photo ninja could capture me without respite! 
A brief check on our location
 And the corn goes on and on and on and on…
 I think at this point I have pointed out a great deal of things I have seen. But that is not all I did. I smelled a bunch of stuff too and most of it was not pleasant. O.o … I am not sure but when we got into PA the smells just made me gag a few times. It may be that I hadn’t smelled them before because of my other helmet but man! It smelled like 3 skunks had been killed in one spot at one point! Getting back on track, back to a goatish road. Though I do have to admit I like this picture. The skies out here are sooo blue and the clouds so white and everything is green. And of course the corner sign is yellow… Hehe
 Cloud check, still good
 Our second or third stop for the day for gas had a beautiful backdrop. First Pan shot of the day…
 The guys
 Me, using the restroom mirror
 Bridge!
 We make it to Millersburg Ferry , established between 1817 & 1820. 
They have a very basic way of communicating a request for transport
 Photo of the Photographers
 
The Susquehanna River at the Ferry Crossing…Pan Shot 2
 Some artsy shots: 
Oh wait that’s Greg! Hehehe! Sunken Guard. This was used to help guide the boat into landing
 Genius tourists 
Signs of the times
 Ah our ride appears
 The Roaring Bull V, though built in 1998 it mirror’s it’s predecessors in almost every way from the planked bottom to the passenger seating area. It’s 83 feet long. It’s powered by a 57 hp Deuetsch Diesel Engine. 
Loaded in
 The Paddle
 Engine House
 This chain is along the rail but it matches the one turning the paddle.
 Passenger house
 Some shots of the water as we passed
 
The other side
 
Some of the River Grass we passed over someone should really see about mowing that hehehe.
 And we are off again!
 To find lunch! For lunch we stop over in Millersburg. Unfortunately most of the town was shut down for a bicycle race. Those folks can move! They lean over more than Tyke and I do and their wheels are smaller! That and they ride so close together! Scary! Well the bad side is that the Pizza shop we were going to eat at was closed the good was that we ended up here:
 A few images from their wall
Picture of the town
 Etched image of the Falcon, the other Ferry
 Our server was to quick for me! She ducked!
 But was a good sport about it. I am sure she will be happy to know it turned out blurred. Though I am not.
Someone suggested I take a picture of the utensils… so I did. Nothing particularly exciting about them…
 Dave, Scott, Greg, and Jason
 Lunch! A club sandwich and the fries came on a separate plate. Good stuff!
 Someone ordered broccoli! Your not supposed to eat healthy on a ride! Sheesh!! 
Apparently Dave didn’t get that memo! It’s alright we forgive you!
 A Market Square Park
 A memorial at the park
 
This is one of the historical explanations but I forgot to take a picture of the upper right hand corner to complete it for a pan shot. I’ll be better next time! I swear!
 
So after lunch it was decided to head to somewhere called Centralia PA. Now not being from here or anywhere near here I just go “Okay!” And poof we are gone! Odo just after lunch
 Still have good happy clouds
 Hi Chris!
 Now those that have been reading for a while know that Tyke and I travel a lot. It is not often that I get to see the change over. Tyke is getting to be so grown up… I have to take her in to get another check up soon!
Wooohooo! 9,000 miles!
 Placement check
 This cloud does not look happy!! But that’s okay we passed it!
 
Yet another stop for refreshment for bike and rider found us near a small monument in Independence PA (think that’s where we were…) 
(I pan shot but this time from the bottom up. I think it turned out quiet nice)
 The water, through my sunglasses looked Orange! I kid you not! 
Ten miles from Centralia
 James
 I learned that Centralia used to be a coal-mining town that had been deserted and the mines, or hill in this case, was on fire! But it is not a visible fire like one’s attacking California. No this whole hill’s insides were on fire! (For more details visit the Wikipedia site ) Well what have we gotten ourselves into now! Gravel! A whole lot of it! Alright Tyke be cool, I’ll be cool and we will make it through this in one piece.
 Windmills across the valley from the top of Centralia
 A church across the valley
 Chris and John
 Chris’ bike
 One of the smoking vents. You can’t see the smoke from this picture but I swear it was!
 Here! Above the guy in the blue shirt’s head. That white spot? That’s smoke!
 Cloud Coverage
 Some of the guys, the ones on the Motards, decide to check out the dirt paths 
Scott decided to play a bit more than the others and goes again!
 I did get some pictures of them all coming over a bump but this man and his wife refused to get out of the picture frame because they wanted to watch too! Grrr! So they either blocked the jump itself or the front of the bike! Ruined by spectators! So I deleted them. Sigh. Scott played a little to hard and gets a flat! 
Greg checking for the leak
 How many men does it take to discover it is a flat? All of ‘em!
 Wait where’s Chris!? Ahh there he is… Playing Photog..
 They decide to head down to the pavement to put in a new tube and fix it. The Sport bikers decide to play around a little more then join them.
 Hey Chris!
 Down another path is an old Cemetery
 
Some nice (fake) flowers for decoration 
Man and Beast
 Wait a second…Amended: Man, Beast, and Technology!
 Photo op while they continue to fix the tire. Don’t worry with as many hands in that kitchen there were plenty of chiefs. 
I return back to the guys to find them diligently working on fixing the tire. 
Greg has this nice pump that can be hooked up to a bike to use to compress air into the tire to fill it up.
 A few more killin time shots, kind of artsy
 
Yay!! All fixed with little to no grease. GO Greg!! Whoo hoo! Scott owes ya!
 Next we go check out this other area and at first John and I are hesitant as wellll the entrance is little bigger than my own shoulders… O.o (What the heck!) Er Greg? You serious!? And he was like “Yes. It is only for about 20ft. Trust me” o.O okay… I didn’t get any pictures going in until we went out but this is the area just after that passage…
A road? Huh? O.o Sure is!
 Albeit a bit over grown.  Turns out this was a road/highway that went through Centralia but it got closed down after it started buckling and well, melting due to the mine fire. 
I have no idea what picture I was trying to take but it went along with the ones in the beginning and I think it is neat
 Greg inspecting the sink hole
 The bikes 
Jason found a plateau above the sink where you could look down. It took a while but finally I was able to get the guys in the picture to sit still long enough to get a series of pictures to create this pan shot so I could picture it in zoom. 
John Posing
 Dave looking around
 It was decided that the hour was getting late and some of the riders had a really long way to get home. It was the general coconscious to get home at a decent hour and so slab was chosen as the return route. The exit is the same as the entrance
 See!! It is sooo small! Anything bigger than the bikes we had wouldn’t have made it. That’s John going through in front of me. One of the abandoned building on the new highway but still the populace is very limited except for visitors.
 The last official stop on the ride to get a beverage to cool down, I had ice cream! 
After that we rode off into the sunset! 
But I still have a few more pictures to share! Don’t go anywhere yet! Sheesh!
Chris
 Sunset
 
That was the last one of the ride itself. What time did I get in?
GPS Says:
 How many miles did we cover?
Tyke says:
 425!!! Whooo hoo!! Record from the Delta Ride (345) is beat! Ponders for next time…. I really wish you could hear all of the thought conversations I had in my head during this ride. They were all very amusing well at least to me. It is sad really that I ride and come up with commentary for this exact thing, my ride log, and by time I actually sit down to write it I have forgotten it, or most of it. Or forgotten why I have taken a certain picture. Though sometimes I can see the picture and remember sometimes I don’t and I know there was a reason I took the picture. I will have to come up with a way to share this. Anyone know of a recorder I could get for my helmet or something?
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