I got out of the Navy in September of 1979 after 8 years and a couple months. Made it to E-6, Petty Officer First Class, and was the senior electrician on the USS Semmes DDG-18, but really didn’t like the pressure of the job. I decided to leave the Navy and work in the local Charleston area shipyards for a year or two and then hit the road.

I saved everything I made beyond the necessities, and got my ‘72 rigid XLCH ready for a long trip. I had it running good, but looking pretty ragged, which was the opposite it usually seemed to be. In March of 1981 I loaded up the Sporty and the rest of my stuff in the back of my ‘77 Ford van, and headed for my Dad’s place in Ohio. It was a pretty uneventful trip except for blowing a couple retreads in West Virginia.

When I arrived at my Dad’s house near West Salem, he offered to swap his 1978 FLH for my van, even-up. Of course I took the offer, and started prepping the FLH for my trip. Part of the preps included getting comfortable with the rocker clutch and hand shift, and getting the carb to quit spitting back. I took the bike to a friend of Dad’s, Duck, who had an indy shop. He charged me five bucks to drill the idle and main jets a little richer. After that the FLH ran great with no more spitting and sputtering.

I added a metal box to the luggage rack behind the police solo seat, and then attached a set of duck saddlebags to the box. That gave me the old style leather bags Dad had installed, the metal box, and the cloth bags on the box for storage. I also made arrangements to attach a back-pack to the front of the metal box, and slung a submarine rack bag underneath the headlight off the forks. Loaded up, I probably looked like a raggedy gypsy, but I was more than ready to take off for months at a time.

I called a couple ex-Navy buds, one in New City, New York, and one in Groveton, New Hampshire. Also found out some other friends and an ex-girl friend would be in western Pennsylvania a couple weeks after Laconia. The plan was to ride to New York, spend a week or so partying with Tony, then head on to New Hampshire and spend a couple weeks with Brian. The last week in NH would be at Laconia for the bike races and bash. Then I’d stop off in Pennsylvania on my way back to Ohio and see what was happening there.

I left Ohio and crossed Pennsylvania on I-80. It was the typical super-slab, and I really don’t remember anything about the ride until the PA-NJ border, where the road drops through the Delaware Water Gap. The traffic was pretty heavy, traveling about 85 mph, and the road drops down out of the heights and crosses the Delaware River. Once across the Gap, New Jersey quieted down for a spell.

Next was where I-80 ended, dumping onto I-95, shortly before hitting New York. Traffic was getting heavy again, and I was not looking forward to anything to do with rush hour and the New York City area. I saw the exit for the Palisades Parkway, and headed north along the Hudson River. This was a nice ride considering the traffic. I decided to try and enjoy the view by pulling off into a rest area until the going-home-hordes thinned out. Turned out to be an excellent idea as the ride after that was great with little traffic and great views off the cliffs into the Hudson. It was actually easy to imagine being somewhere besides wall-to-wall city.

After crossing the line into New York, the road turned west from the Hudson. I found New City and copped a hotel room as it was pretty late and I didn’t want to bother Tony and his folks. Next morning I called and we hooked up at his home. He worked for his Dad in a machine shop, so I went in with him to check it out. His Dad “hired” me to install some receptacles, and fix some lights fixtures on several machines. Then Tony and I loaded into the company truck and drove into “The City” to pick up some plastic beads for a molding machine.

Once the day was

 

Great story Skip! It's funny how the the mind can play back all of those details almost 25 years later and how it becomes the theater of the mind as it pours out into the keyboard. Especially when one considers the huge numbers of brain cells killed along the way It was so nice of Officer Obie to go Teasle on you. Looking forward to part 2.

Steve

 

Skip, I've missed your stories. Glad to see you're back at the keyboard and looking forward to the next installment. Gotta say that most of the stories I skim, but yours I read word for word. Thanks for sharing again.

 

Very enjoyable Skip, brought some adventures out of the cobwebs. Thanks for posting.

Pat

 

I only had a hour to read it

 

Good stuff here, Skip. It's interesting to read, as you've told parts of these before, and now they're put together...keep it coming.

Mac

 

skip..that lake in the mountains is called "christine lake"..nice place to have a few beers

 

Great story Skip. If only I could find the time to try a trek like that.

 

Excellent story, sort of a Blast from the Past.
I always like to read about rides from the past.
Take care, from Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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Fantastic story... first one from you I have read, I may have to search through the old postings to read the others that 12Stones mentioned. Thanx for taking the time to post it.