Great Weekend

Saturday was a beautiful day. I had to attend a training for my part time employment, so i made the most of it and took the bike. The training was in Morgantown, which is South of Reading a bit. I took all of the killer back roads I know in that direction and then hopped on Rt. 10. Rt. 10 is nice winding two lane road that takes you through some really nice country. Plus it dumps you right into Morgantown, so that was very nice.

Sunday I had to miss the "Rise of the Phoenix Ride" so that I could attend the "44th annual Old-Timers Banquet" with my Mother. Mom has been involved with motorcycles her entire life. Her father was a national champion and was enshrined in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame last year. My father met her at a Motorcycle club event. They were a big part of the "Road Knights" motorcycle club until it passed on with only a few members remaining. So she knows a lot of the people there. My uncle was giving her a ride up. The event was to start with a social event at 11:00 and dinner at 12:30.

I got up and helped my wife get the girls ready for church. Then we all headed down and went to Sunday school. I then said my good-byes and hopped on the bike for a ride up to Pottsville. As I was gassing up the "Toys for Tots" parade of Harley clowns went by. Ok, I get it, you are giving toys to unfortunate children, its a great cause. How about next year you spend a couple less bucks on the toys and install a muffler or two on your bike? How about less of the skull mask pull over caps and wear a helmet instead. Anyway the parade of clowns made a big back up. So I lane split to get to the front of the line going in the opposite direction and then had a nice clear lane with no one in front of me for quite a few miles.

My destination was just a couple of miles down the road from the little city of Pottsville. Pottsville is nestled in the shadow of Sharp Mountain and getting there is all the fun. Twisty back roads go into the beauty of Blue Mountain. The ride up Blue Mountain is fun, every time you get stuck behind a car struggling for power on the long steep uphill climbs there is a lovely passing lane. The K11 is easily able to power up those hills gaining speed the entire time if need be. Because of this going up Rt. 183 can actually be a pleasure. While the scenery was nice a lot of the leaves that had changed recently were blown off the trees by the 50 mph winds we had a few nights before, so it was past peak.

Pottsville itself has an interesting story. Pottsville sits on top of anthracite coal. The cleanest and best burning kind of coal. It was discovered by a man that started a campfire one night and realized that it was still burning the next day. Pottsville became a boomtown on the backs of the coal miners. In the 1920's it was at its peak, and today it is a shadow of what it was. The only real thing that's still there from those days is the Yuengling brewery that has the distinction of being America's oldest. (It survived Prohibition by producing ice cream) Pottsville was also the home of one of the first NFL teams - The Pottsville Maroons. They were robbed of the 1925 championship and I am in the middle of reading the book "The Breaker Boys" which is about that team. Its very good so far.

I got to the hall at about 11:30, no Mom. Hmmmm. My uncle is notoriously late, so I wasn't worried. I hung out looked at the old bikes and chatted with people I knew. I ran into a couple of Mac Paccers and a few other people that were friends or co-workers with my parents. But then its 12:15. Then 12:30, lunch time, and still no Mom. Luckily the food was late and Mom got there in time to be seated just before the grub. Of course I needed to leave before the end because I worked that night. So all in all I did not get a lot of time to spend with my Mom. Bummer. As I was headed out I had a little conversation with another paccer who saw me making my exit a bit early. My mother got me the T-shirt that I won as a door prize and will give it to me next weekend.

The ride home was just as nice but a little colder. Some heavy clouds were moving in and the sun was not warming things up like it was on the ride up. So the heated grips were put on high and I zipped up the jacket all the way to the neck. I blasted home the same way with a little exception at the end. Another 90 miles on the bike. I hate that they end the mileage contest so soon.

I will post pictures as soon as I get them off of my cell phone.