NEBDR 9/10/2022 to 9/18/2022

 Me and Matt decided to run the NEBDR in September of 2022 around a year earlier in 2021. So we had a year to prepare the bikes my CRF250L and Matts DRZ400S both about 10 years old.  With a year to plan you can buy way too much stuff and spend way too much money. Despite that no where in this log will there be a breakdown report. So we must have done something right with the bikes. 

    We decided to leave at 8 am so there I sat waiting for Matt to get to my house.  A quick stop at the South Toms River WAWA and we were off by 10:15. Our trip to Hancock, NY  was not too bad we rode on the Tarmac all the way there. We stopped just a few times for some food and some road side America. Jadwin Dam

Jadwin Dam

After we got to Hancock, NY we checked in at  the Upper Delaware Inn then rode the bikes across the border into PA to Micbrees Crosstown  Tavern . I knew I was at a Tavern of my liking when they served Bud in cans. The hotel was very nice and the only place we booked a head of time. We were unsure how many miles that we would complete in a day. We actually thought we would be doing each section easily and would be deep into the next section. We over estimated our daily miles.                      (our day one route

MicBree's 

DAY ONE BDR

We were on the road at 8:30 the off road section started right away as we rode along the West branch of the Delaware river.  

We somehow felt we belonged here

Our breakfast stop was at around 9:30 am so we were not on the road very long before hunger set in

We had a great breakfast and hung around way too long chatting with the two women in the 
breakfast joint.  It rained for most of the day not pouring rain but enough to get you wet if you weren't  wearing proper gear. The trip was still fun as hell and we were having a blast.

One of us shitting in the woods

 

Our first evening of trying to find a place to lay our heads and it sure didn't turn out too good. We first made our way to The Andes Hotel it had a really nice bar that was kind of empty so my hopes for a vacant room increased. When they told me there were no Vacancies I has disappointed. It was about 4pm and nothing would have been nicer than to dry out in this swanky hotel and this nice bar. I remember asking if there was another hotel in the area and this is where I got the idea for the black widow hotel.I should have known something was wrong when I called and I wasn't talking to the hotel but someone that was hired to answer the phones. When we paid and pulled up to the place there was no one there, Not even a lobby person

Matt started counting the spider webs along the corridor it was easy to accomplish as we were the only ones staying at the black widow inn as Matt was calling it. 

We rode directly out to dinner located in Margaretteville I can't remember what I had to eat I know it wasn't Salmon

Matt is the only one that smokes cigarettes and drinks bourbon than orders salmon. 

After we got back to the hotel I realized how wet we were 

I`m trying to dry Matts boots

After dinner we were hanging out drinking beers and counting spiders when these two dude roll up on a DRZ650 and one of the new Royal Enfield Himalayan. We chatted a little but not to much they seemed like nice people with cool stories about how they ended up doing the BDR. One of the guys just bought his KLR the other day and headed off with a  hard front tire. More on that later. It's kind of funny how me and Matt prepared for a year and this dude prepared for two  days but here we both are sleeping at the Black widow inn, 

.  DAY TWO BDR

We woke up pretty early and got out of a terrible hotel (Good Riddance Spider hotel)  We first ate some of our sorry breakfast provided by the spiders

We had a pretty easy ride for the morning. Some NY state back roads along the Catskill state park nothing great just some nice scenery

We were very hungry and went looking for a place to eat and wandered into This Quaint little place

We surely didn't seem to be in a hurry and spent a large chunk of the early afternoon talking with the owner of The Village East Cafe & Market 

I ordered something normal and again I think Matt ordered Salmon again. My lunch was so good. The owner told us everything about how she gets the ingredients and talked to us about the different coffee in the shop which we ordered and where I found my taste for espresso.  We left and I felt great and very confident that this trip is going well and not beyond my riding ability.  

HOLY SHIT

We left there and proceeded to ride up some seriously scary up hill down hill section, When we get to the bottom I see some straps hanging down from Matts DRZ

When I tell him he says we have to go back up because his saddle bags are missing. OMG not good all his stuff is in there. DID he find his saddle bags that happen to be the same color as the rocks?

Note the name of the road for history

OK again I'm amazed.

I think back and this may have been our first of many knarly trail sections.

Disaster avoided so off we went. 

So we're heading down the road I see a waterfall and think shit we should go check that out. Yup matt stops and suggests that we should go check out that waterfall we just passed.  It's around 3pm and I'm thinking we still have plenty of daylight to enjoy the day. But I don't know where we're staying that night and I wish I did. 

We get back on the NEBDR trail and stop to take a break and eat some snacks. It's a little after 4pm and we should of set up camp but we still had many miles to complete section 2 and we thought it best to motor on. 

We rode till the end of the section and who is at the gas station but the two guys we left sleeping at the spider hotel. Now remember we had one hell of a time qith some really crazy rough sections and I started jokingly accusing them of skipping the hard sections. It turns out they did indeed do the hard sections and must of passed us while we were looking at waterfalls. 

Together as a team of 4 we set out to find a hotel. We settled on a place 

Peloke's Hotel

There Matt proceeded to change the one guys front tire. We stayed up way too late drinking and watching Matt do his magic. 

Day 3
 

Ok so we awake pretty late but we were drinking kind of late I think we got rolling around 10. There was no movement from our new friend room so off we went. It was not too tough until it started to get dark in the cover of the tree and it started to pour. So with much persuasion I managed to talk Matt of skipping a section and heading to our place of rest this night. 

The place we had to rest our heads at this night was Tony and Claudia house that they rented for a few days.  Matt was to skip a section only if I promised to go back and hit tomorrow morning. 

Icebreakers

Rode a dualsport yesterday with Matt,Kara and this dude Artie. Artie will be doing the NEBDR with me and Matt this September so it was nice to meet him. The Dualsport was a blast I rode the Hondog (2013 CRF250L) I had all the bags on that I'll be taking on the NEBDR. everything worked out fine with a few tweaks here and there. The company was a lot of fun. I always have a good time with Matt and Kara and it was cool just to get out and ride for the day despite it being cold as f$@&.





Williamsport

 Just Back from a trip to Williamsport PA. Me and Tony. We Rode this way on the The First Day Basically 

 just a route to Williamsport and tried to have a little fun along the way. DAY TWO was a great trip we kind of did a loop on some really cool roads and headed east to get a little closer to home so we could just boogie home on day 3

. Great trip all went well. Not many pictures but that's OK it was all about the ride.

Maverick Jay

Jessica and Andrew have a son now. He was born during the pandemic 4/19/20. Kind of a crazy time this covid19 crap. Well we weren't able to hold him for the first few months and that was really heart breaking for my wife. I think that's why she purchased the two dogs we have now Sasha and Rubie. I was ecstatic over the fact that his last name was chosen to be Jay. That was such a wonderful thing. It really made me feel special like I must of been a really good dad to of had the first grand child have my name as his middle. Jessica and Andrew really made me proud. 

I can wait to retire

So I found a job working for Ocean ride. I guess I been there for a year and a half now. 9 months was as a temp and didn't get the full benefits of medical and numerous days off. I 

Basically pick up elderly people and drive them to the doctors or shopping. I love it and decided I'm not retiring any time soon. So I took some money out of my Roth IRA and bought a Honda  2021 Crf450RL. That's a lot of bike for a old man. I was going to get a Adventure bike which is a 450lb over weight go anywhere bike. Matt and my son Danny some how talked me into this dirt eating machine. I love them guys I'm so much happier having a kick ass dirt bike again. 

Getting old I tell ta

Went out riding today with Rod and I have to tell ya. I really felt my 55 year old age today. I was exhausted from riding in the heat. 

Fathers day ride woohoo

Hell we even got Shawn to go out with the regular crew of Dan, Mason, Cynthia and Myself

Unemployed life

Sherrie had to work at long island beach so she dropped me off and I peddled north to the light house

Canoe trip

Dan and I went on a big canoeing journey today. From the girl Scout canoe access to Berkley Island park. Dan makes friends with a boater and she gives him a jelly shoot

Dan's race in PA

I drove Dan up past Jim Thorpe PA   google tracks

Curious if that link will work.
It was nice to just drive up there with me and Dan. Kind of like old times we laughed and had a great time up and back. He was racing my bike WR250 Husky because his KX250F was having new Valves put in and I think he was hating life the first loop and I felt like I was able to talk him into continuing the race. He would of hated himself if he quit

Dan made me turn around so we could see the windmills. Glad he Did