Breakfast at the Rodeway Inn was not complimentary but they did proffer a voucher for $3 to be used in the affiliated “Leasure’s Restaurant”. In America, I have been told, it’s customary to ‘tip the room’, a practice encouraged to supplement the income of housekeeping staff. $5 a night was my information, along with ‘a buck a beer’ and 20% on restaurant cheques. A practice that I have followed diligently but approximately usually depending on the small bills remaining in my clip following the relentless conversion of twenties to ones. On this occasion I was caught short and left only two bucks and the unused voucher, I suspect that they, and you, now think me mean.
With over five hours riding ahead I was keen to cover miles and it wasn’t until we reached Geneva NY (confusingly also on a lake) that there was an opportunity to stop and check the oil. Previously topped up she was now half empty, I gave her half of the remaining supplies and noticed that the left hand cylinder head gasket was now contributing to the loss. The miles and possibly the ignominious topple in the rain have taken their toll, I’m feeling it too.
The steady drip of oil was becoming an embarrassment so when we stopped a fast food outlet in Whitney Point I cleaned up the sump as best I could and gaffa taped a folded serviette as a pad to absorb the flow from beneath, remarkably it held. It’s not that I have a thing about fast-food but other places to stop are few and far between, the land is privately owned and the paved roads extend just enough to allow for passage and not much else. Often we are forced to perch precariously on the edge of junctions in order to stop at all to rest or take photographs.
On the back roads that our “No Motorways” option selects there are glorious sights, these parts of New York and Pennsylvania are filled with forested rolling hills and occasionally spectacular waterfalls and long ‘finger’ lakes. They are, however mostly restricted to 40 mph, a limit that at times seems unobtainable on the often repaired and maliciously channeled surface. The handling became an issue once more and I looked forward to checking out what was going on with the front end once I got to my friend Adam. “Today?” he texted in reply to my progress report, I wasn’t expected.
Despite my surprise arrival and the many other things to be busy with, like brewing his own, he made me welcome with beer and food and garage space and, most well received, by the use of his washing and drying machines, this really is the end of a marathon.
Le Mans man 