Monday, 7/10 Blakeslee, PA to Springfield, MA

The rain cleared overnight leaving us with a cool, overcast day. The cooler weather was a welcome relief.

We had breakfast at the hotel…

… and packed the bikes.

Beth coordinated meeting up with Lynne and Mike.

At our morning gas stop, Beth and Lynne decided to ride directly to the hotel in Springfield while Mike and I rode to the campground.

After setting up, I rode to Tom’s Motorcycle Repair shop. Tom works out of his home. He checked the steering head bearing on the Goldwing and confirmed my suspicion that it is OK. (The bearing has a “notch” at the center of travel.)

Meanwhile in Springfield, Beth and Lynne checked into the Sheraton.

The hotel atrium goes to goes all the way to the roof.

They are on the 12th floor. The door to the first room they were given didn’t work, so the hotel switched them to a different room.

Tuesday, 7/11 – Repairs, Parade, and Dinner

Day 1 of the convention began with the Welcome Meeting in the morning and the parade in the afternoon. The parade had a police escort and followed a 22-mile route around Springfield.

You can view the parade video here.

Meanwhile, I fixed breakfast and explored a bit of the campground.

Later in the morning Mike and I rode to Camping World, about 30 miles north of the campground. We got caught in construction traffic on the Mass Pike. They were patching potholes on a bridge. There are patched potholes on all the roads making them very bumpy. One advantage of the Goldwing is that the pipes don’t burn your leg in stop and go traffic.

Most camping World stores are huge and is the reason we chose to go to this one. It was tiny by comparison to the ones near us in St. Petersburg. Mike was, however, able to find the parts he needed and I bought a short hose to go from the propane tank to the stove.

Mike and I had lunch at the Hash House restaurant. The food was good, but we had to wait more than an hour for our meals to arrive. Needless to say, we won’t return there.

From the restaurant we rode to the Forest Park area of Springfield to watch the parade. We joined other guys waiting for the parade. The homes in Forest Park are beautiful, large Victorian mansions.

After the parade we went back to the campground to walk the dogs. Later we returned to downtown Springfield to join Beth and Lynne for dinner at Thedore’s, which labels itself as the home of Booze, Blues, and BBQ. We didn’t stay for the music, but the food was good and we didn’t have to wait long for the food to arrive.

Tomorrow Beth and Lynne will ride the Dot Robinson Road Run and Mike and I will join them for dinner.