Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The Big Finish


P-Rock - Posting from the Office

Day 28 - Fremont, IN to HOME






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It sure is odd to be posting from my office, with a normal keyboard and screen, but it's great to be home. It sure felt odd today to be driving a car. I felt as though I had no vision in my surroundings. I already miss the open road - now that's not to say that I'm ready to head back out - but the experience is just starting to hit home now.

Yesterday was probably the worst travel day of any we had. We started out early in Indiana and just before we left the hotel it started to rain. Blackie and I took a quick look at the sky and decided that if we motored on the weather would get better.

For once we were right. It got sunny and warm within an hour.

But it was Ohio. Driving through Ohio is just not fun. I'm not sure why, but I'm not a big fan of the Buckeye state. Except for Drew Carey that is.

Then we hit PA and our friend and blog follower Jake had happened to be working in Pittsburgh and happened to have ridden his Softail Harley out and happened to be heading home today.

Hmmm. Coincidence???

I think not. But that's all good because Jake is such a cool guy, and having an extra set of eyes in amongst the trucks on I-80 is always a good thing. We hooked up with Jake and started out on our battle with the 18 wheelers - and man were there a lot of them. Between the trucks and the construction we had our hands full for the 250 miles of ride through PA. Once we left Jake and started our final trek south we hit an accident that had Route 309 closed - which coincidently set us up for a great entry time at Slacker Tuesday, this week being held at the world famous Lammy's Fury Lounge. It was quite a scene and I have to thank all of the people there for the warm welcome home.

AND, Mrs. Rock and Mrs. Blackie were there - that was the best of all. Oh, and I want to send out a big thank you from our friend Lammy, who took the arrival pictures!

We hung out for awhile and unwound from the ride, then Blackie headed out for home followed by yours truly a few minutes later. I rolled my trusty steed into the garage and didn't even think about unpacking - I can do that later. I went in and greeted our Golden Retriever, Sadie and our Boxer, Riley (they were both extremely excited to see 'ol Dad) and then took a good look around the house and went up for a good night's sleep in my own bed. I can't tell you how good that felt.

I was asked last night if I'd do this trip again. In a flash I responded with "Change the tires and fluids and let's go!". Now seriously, I'd be a single man if I did that - but what I meant was that the experience was so good that how could you not consider doing something like that again?

I think part of what made this experience so special was the synergy between Blackie and I - both in riding styles and thoughts, and in our differing perspectives on what we were experiencing and how we related to them in the blog. The Blog certainly added a whole different dimension, and in some ways energized us to ensure we were getting (and relating) the experience to our followers. Yes, you guys and girls were as much a part of this adventure as we were. In some ways we felt a responsibility to post - but it was never a burden. I want to personally thank each and every follower for their time, attention and comments. We looked forward to the hit counts and comments each day as much as you looked forward to these posts.

I've been asked if we'll write a book. At this point that's really too much to consider, but I would not totally rule it out. I think we have something to work with here for sure. Stay Tuned.

And now, the final mileage, as told from my odometer. As Blackie related, there were some differences in his odometer vs. mine in total mileage, with mine being about 400 miles higher. That could be odometer error, or perhaps I rode the outside of every turn and made bigger circles when we had to turn around in parking lots. Yeah, that's it!

Um... I think we'll go with Odometer Error.

P-Rock - Ignition Off.

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