Ithaca and Onward

I'd originally allotted the whole first morning in Ithaca for getting the motorcycle started. Happily, it snorted to life and was waking late-sleeping grad students up and down the whole block within 10 minutes, freeing up the rest of the morning for fun stuff. Like a huge nap. And heading to a prearranged spot and time to meet some "runner dudes" who Chris set me up with for a good hill-repeat workout. I had a great time visiting Ithaca and Chris- it was hard to leave. Between sticking around for a AM workout at Crossfit Ithaca, and a delicious breakfast put on by Chris' rommate Moe, it was 10:00 the next morning before I was on the road.

The ride was great. Riding through NY and PA was a rural, beautiful, bucolic treat, like tearing through Frodo's Shire at 80MPH. The leaves are just starting to turn, but a few small areas were a little ahead of the game and brilliant enough to warrant stopping. It was cold enough to get across the point that it was definitely Fall and make it hard to count out bills to the gas station clerk after the first leg. "Just take. Cold. Ouch."

This was a short day, and I filled it looking for roads with better fall leaves and taking pictures of road signs while locals shook their heads, but without as much as a second of working on or worrying about the bike. I found Pittsburgh just where they said it'd be (and not where I pictured it, up by the Great Lakes somewhere), and spent an hour trying to get to an address just off the freeway. I saw Northshore, the sports stadiums, Downtown, and Mt. Washington, all on the way to Southside.