Obligatory Picture of FrankenCycle by the sign to Beemerville!
From: dje@mail.bellcore.com (Don Eilenberger) Date: Thu, 22 Jun 95 01:42:12 EDT Subject: BMW: Fandango part Deux (Episode 7 of several) LONG!
It again is late.. about 12:45AM, and I have to by in the rotten apple tomorrow, so this will be a short episode (I hope).. just trying to finish the thing at this point, but my fingers just seem to keep typing. - Don
When last heard from, we (Frank and I) had taken a detour off my intended route due to a spastic fuel gauge on Frank's Suzi.. since this put me in a somewhat foul mood - having to travel on NJ Rt. 206, I didn't look for the highest quality fuel provider to stop at.. we ended up with Frank putting about 1.8 gallons of gas into his 4 gallon tank at a no-name gas station run by people from other countries who got very mad at Frank when he dropped their gas nozzle (for some reason, Frank frequently does not get off his bike when tanking up - something I've noticed with other owners of UJM's.. I find this a bit strange - I always get off my bike to fill it up, otherwise I've got a tangled hose in my hands when done and no place to put it..).
Anyway - we proceeded on south on Rt. 206, through Newton NJ at the height of rush hour (when I lived in the area during the mid 1960's, rush hour in Newton mean that the traffic lights were turned on.. they usually were on blinker). Due to the development of the surrounding area of Newton - it now appears as an almost suburban environment, complete with traffic jams - Bummer!
After working through Newton, we continued down Rt. 206 a few miles to the Springdale area. We stopped at St. Paul's Abbey - which is where I worked for four summers while in college, at the summer camp the abbey ran. We took a few shots of F/C at the abbey - and then proceeded to the old summer camp, which the abbey had sold off some years ago. The camp now appears deserted, although all the buildings are still standing. I took a few minutes to reminisce and we then headed west on the road from Springdale. Sussex County Rt. 519, in search of NJ Rt. 94 - a secondary highway I remembered some good things about from my time in the area.
Rt. 94 is an excellent motorcycle road - at least the stretch between Fredon and Columbia NJ. It is generally a wide open, wide shouldered, well paved, lightly traveled highway through some great countryside. Farms, forests, scenic villages.. not too many twisties, but enough to keep you awake (I suspect Tom C. knows the road well..). At Tom's suggestion, we took a small detour to the town of Hope NJ to look for food and lodging - it was now about 5:30PM, and we'd been on the road since 8:30AM. Turning off Rt. 94 at Blairstown and heading south a few miles on Rt. 521 (which is where I originally intended to be without the detour) led us into Hope - with only two scares by Bambi's on the side of the narrow road.
Hope NJ is an old Moravian village - and almost all the buildings in the village are constructed of cut stone - what appeared to be granite to me. Very scenic, quiet, old time village. We located the inn, and went to the parking lot - and parked[1]. This inn just plain looked a bit TOO fancy to me. Frank didn't seem to think anything of it - butwas still wearing his red flannel shirt, jeans, and ad-di-das sneakers. I noticed that everyone I saw going to dinner at the inn was at a minimum wearing a jacket and tie, and some were wearing dinner jackets. I sorta thought we might be a bit out of place in our touring attire, so I convinced Frank that we should press onwards - which may have been a mistake.
About now, I could tell Frank was getting a bit tired - and my forearms were killing me (low speed syndrome), so our search for a place to stop and eat and sleep became more pressing.
I guessed that since where Rt. 94 ended was where US Highway Rt. 80 crossed the Delaware River - there would be some usual interchange sorta motels, and hoped for another one on the order of the Best Western we'd stayed in the night before. I was to be disappointed.
The only motel at the intersection with Rt. 80 was a Day's Highway'er (they spelled it - I didn't), which seemed to be a truck-stop motel. There was an attached quick food restaurant, gas pumps, but the motel itself on one side faced Rt. 80, on the other side was a LARGE parking lot for trucks (and I assume overnight stays by truckers was the primary clientele of the motel). The truckers did not appear inclined to stop their engines - and most of the truck diesels were running. One side a busy highway, other side - truck engines and diesel fuel.
Frank couldn't quite understand why I didn't want to stay - but aside from the noise, I'd had bad experiences with several Day's Inns of this ilk, and felt the bikes would be VERY exposed if we parked them in either of the motel's lots.. so I decided we would go on a bit further and look for a mom and pop sorta motel on the local highway - NJ Rt. 46, which also intersected at this corner.
NJ Rt. 46 is another old 1930's concrete highway, and was once part of the main route between Pennsylvania and New York City. To a great extent, the building of Interstate Rt. 80 took much of the traffic load off Rt. 46, but the remaining traffic is still primarily trucks, and quite fast moving ones.
We proceeded in a southerly direction about 2 miles on Rt. 46 (actually labeled Rt. 46 East - but in this section it goes due south for a bit), until I saw a sign that said:
It looked good to me[2] - so with handsigns, I indicated to Frank that we'd give it a try. We may have been better off at the Day's Truck-stop/motor-lodge..
Next episode, we'll see what the Bates family has been up to since Psycho IV.. and continue seeking roads named "River Road" on our trip home!
[1] Parking lots and cars and bikes - can someone explain to me why some people driving cars feel offended if a bike (or two in this case) are in a parking spot they want??
Frank and I had parked our bikes and gotten off them - somehow finding the space closest to the Inn was vacant. At first we thought it was a handicapped space - but it was not so marked, and there were spaces across the lot from us that were.. it was just empty and we were lucky.
While we were discussing our options of staying at this Inn, a large American vehicle, driven by an older gent, accompanied by an older gentlewoman pulled up - looked at us, glared at us, stared at us and generally acted as if we should IMMEDIATELY leave this parking space and disappear from their world. We didn't. As a matter of fact - we were about to leave, but I was pissed enough by the glaring/staring/hissing act they put on that I refused to get on my bike UNTIL they walked past us from the space further down the lot they were forced to take.
This was the only incidence of hostility we had on the entire trip, and made me decide my choice not to stay at the Inn at Hope was probably a correct one.
[2] It looked good to me.. I have a real liking for things that "seemed like a idea at the time" but in retrospect - - may not have been such a good idea.
I am NO stranger to this myself, and on and off have collected through the years clippings that relate the things that other people have done `cause "it seemed like a good idea at the time". (I think it helps me think that mine are not too goofy..)
My favorite is still the guy about 12 years ago, who tied surplus weather balloons filled with hydrogen to his lawn chair and took an unexpected flight to 20,000 feet - being passed by airliners. He had planned this all out carefully, including the BB-gun to shoot out balloons to control his altitude.
Unfortunately he lost the BB gun when he achieved liftoff - so he was more or less in free flight until the balloons started bursting. When he was interviewed (he did return to the ground uninjured) - he stated with a great deal of dignity that "It seemed like a good idea at the time" - winning my award for the year! At the time the Feds tried to think of something to charge him with - but were unable to come up with any law that would apply to a flying lawnchair - - he got off scot-free.
In retrospect - betch'a OJ also thought it seemed like a good idea at the time..
======================================= Don Eilenberger (dje@mail.bellcore.com) ======================================= '79 R65 FrankenCycle - der Beemer '87 535i BOHICA - der Bimmer '75 25' Hunter - das Boot =======================================