Friday night Seventies Man rode up to my place with his friend Amelia. They were going to spend the night at my place then we would ride together Saturday. I called AndrewA and he told me that he and XTriple would not be arriving in Lake George until around 2ish. So Seventies Man and I decided we would ride on our own Saturday. I tried getting a message to another local rider to see if he wanted to join us but I couldn't get hold of him. I ordered pizza for us and we had some beers and talked for a while. Everyone went to sleep pretty early since we planed to take off around 7ish on Saturday morning.
Saturday I got up pretty early and got ready and put a pot of coffee on. Seventies Man came down a little while later and Amelia just a little after him. We chatted a little and decided to get ready to head out. It was a cool morning, there was dew on the cars, but it was nice and sunny. I wanted to travel light so I just threw my tank bag on the BMW, and put my camera in there. I decided to leave my jacket liner at home. Seventies Man had to check the oil in his Honda and add a little before we head out. I contemplated whether or not I should bring my jacket liner but once again I decided against it.
We took off for my favorite diner in town called Mac's. Mac's was closed and at first panic came over me because I thought they had went out of business. They had never been closed on a weekend that I knew of. I noticed a sign in the window that said "Closed for Schuylerville graduation." Whew! They were just closed for the day. So I knew Rosie's Country cafe was up the road just a mile or so and head there.
When I got there it wasn't Rosie's anymore. It was now Lynn's Country Cafe. In the 9 years I've lived here I've never been there.
It's a tiny place.
I had the Southwestern omelet which had lots of jalapeños. Seventies Man and Amelia both had eggs and toast.
After breakfast we head out for Lake George. We took West River Rd along the Hudson, then through Glens Falls, then up 9L to lake itself coming out by the Million Dollar Beach. Million Dollar beach is so named because it reportedly cost that much to make when on the sand was brought in during the 60's or 70's. I am sure that seems like a bargain now. We parked on Canada Street near Ushers Park to check our messages and see if any other riders were coming to join us. No messages so we saddled up and head up Route 9N to go around the lake. Traffic wasn't too bad although we did pull over once to let the cars get ahead of us. Then we had a pretty clear shot over Tongue Mountain and we were able to ride pretty quick. We caught back up to the cars on the downhill side. I don't think I've ever made it up and back down without catching up to a single car. During the week is definitely the best time to go over this mountain road.
We turned up Rt 8 in Hague toward Brant Lake. This is a loop I take often and one of my favorites. The tarmac is pretty smooth, the scenery is fantastic, and traffic is pretty light. It was a little colder up here and my nose was beginning to run. This is always a problem since you can't really blow your nose in the full face helmet. We rode around Brant Lake at a pretty nice clip and stopped at Suzy Q's Sunrise Cafe for coffee.
After coffee we went over to Chestertown to checkout Adirondack Ural. Ural is a Russian motorcycle based on the BMW R71. Legend has it that five BMW units were covertly purchased through some Swedish intermediaries and copied. Soviet engineers in Moscow busily dismantled the 5 BMWs. They copied the BMW design in every detail and made moulds and dies to produce their own engines and gearboxes in Moscow. Everything about the bike was reverse engineered and early in 1941 the first trial samples of M-72 motorcycles were shown to Stalin and the decision was taken to produce them.
Seventies Man and Amelia talked to one of the customers that owns a Ural Patrol that he proudly proclaimed gets a new paint can army green spray job every year.
I had to gas up my BMW so while Seventies Man and Amelia finished talking I rode up the street to gas up. 93 octane fuel was $3.57 up there! Yikes! So I rode back down and he head back out on Rt 8 towards North Creek passing Loon Lake on the way. We continued on through North Creek, onto Johnsburg and went up Garnet Lake Rd to stop at Heid's Hodaka & BMW.
Heid's was once a factory BMW dealer but they still do service out of their building. It's a family run business and they live right next door. I even bought a turn signal stalk for my R11S while I was there.
They had many vintage cycles there. I saw an old Honda, some older BMWs, even and old Bultaco Matador!
After leaving there we went back to Route 8 and took that all the way to Indian Lake. We took a left and went south on Route 30 following the Sacandaga river and turned off just before Edinburgh and took North Shore Rd along Sacandaga Lake.
Seventies Man took a siesta
We chilled out there for a while and rested. I was trying to check my messages to see if I heard from AndrewA but my phone had went dead. We decided we were ready to eat. We had a choice of Papa's Diner in Lazurne or A&W in Lake George. I left it to Seventies Man and Amelia to decide. The chose A&W. We took North Shore Rd to Hadley-Luzerne road. I hadn't been on that in years. It was fun but bumpy. When we got to Luzerne two sheriff cars were parked in opposing directions blocking traffic. They didn't seem to care that we were sitting there waiting. I was about to beep (but thought that might not be a good idea) then they finally moved. As the one drove past he cruised a little closer to my bike and I could see he was checking my inspection sticker. What a dick! So we had to follow the one cop. I went the speed limit so he kind of pulled away from me as we went north on 9N towards Lake George. I could just make out the second sheriff car coming over the horizon behind us. I am sure he was trying to catch us speeding. So since he couldn't he just proceeded to tailgate Seventies Man. He followed us right into the village.
We had lunch at A&W. Seventies Man and I both got floats, I got mine with cream soda, and a burger combo. Amelia got a salad. I tried checking my messages with Amelia's phone to see if AndrewA called and there was a message but I couldn't understand it. We I talked to AndrewA on the phone on Friday he told me they were staying at HoJo's. So we just drove over there and stalked them looking for BMW's. We found them.
That's XTriple's bike to the left, Andrew's to the right. Andrew had nice Ohlins like me, they both had nice carbon huggers, and XTriple had the Laser exhaust. As I was taking pictures of their bikes AndrewA appeared out on a balcony above. They came down and were already hitting the Red Bull and Vodka so they were done riding.
That's Seventies Man (Martin) and Amelia to the left, XTriple (Paul) in the middle, and AndrewA to the right.
Seventies Man and Amelia went to look for a hotel so I hung out with XTriple and Andrew for a while. When Seventies Man returned we walked over to dinner. It was a choice between some brewery that I can't recall and Smokey Joe's. We flipped a coin and the brewery won. However, no one came to seat us so we went to Smokey Joe's anyway.
Andrew and XTriple both got the Rib Rack for $20. It was a pretty good deal and they were huge. I got pulled pork quesadilla and Seventies Man and Amelia also had a quesadilla.
Requisite food shot!
Look at those ribs!
My Quesadilla
I had a great time hanging with everyone. Andrew and XTriple are a riot. Andrew has a permanent s**t eating grin on his face. It was cool riding with Seventies Man, he is a good riding partner and we rode a similar pace which is always nice. I took off around 8 to head home since the sun was setting it was getting cold and I didn't have my jacket liner with me.
You can see all the pics here.
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