8-11-11 Day 15 Coming Home

The plan was to leave at 7. Well turns out folks were a little behind and we didn't head out til near 7:30 to gas up. The gas station ended up having no power so we had to search for another and by the time we got onto 76 east it was about 7:45. Of course 2 miles down 76 there's a gas/rest area!! The weather was about 62 and a mix of sun & fog areas. My GPS said it was 436 miles if I took 76/81/78/278 across the Tappan Zee and went up 95. 76 in PA rolls through the Allegheny Mountains and was a nice way to start the day as the sun moved up in the sky. There are a few tunnels that you go through and at the last one, (Blue Mountain) as we came through onto the eastern side it was like a different day. The fog was thick and everything was damp. A few miles down the road things cleared back up. Shortly after the 76/81 interchange and crossing the Susquehana river, Mike & Annie split off to go see their family near Hershey and we continued up 81 onto 78 to 287 and stopped for gas & lunch in Boonton, NJ at a place called Junior's pizza. I know the name now only because after lunch when we were just about to the Tappen Zee bridge (and the traffic was heavy & slow) I realized I wasn't wearing my vest and couldn't remember if I had left it in the pizza joint or put it in my tour pack so I asked on the radio if anyone remembered me wearing it into lunch and Steve D said he didn't think so, so I went on my merry way thinking it was in my tour pack. We crossed the Tappen Zee and decided to take the Hutchinson Parkway to the Merritt Parkway and avoid 95. Mark split off up route 8 and Sue/Steve & Smurph I think took 34 to 80, and I continued on 15 to 66 to 16 to 2 into Norwich and got home around 4 pm. I never gave the vest another thought until the following Thursday getting ready for meeting night and I looked in the bike and no vest in there! Well at this point I didn't know the name of the place or town we eat in. When I got to the meeting that night I asked Smurph if he remembered and he had the same info I had. Asking Sue & Steve got better results as Sue remembered the name was Junior's and we could get the town by checking my credit card transactions as we had got gas just down the street. Steve checked his phone and found that he had checked the mileage home from there and the map page was still in his phone so we found the number and I called. A woman answered the phone and I found out that my vest was there and she took my name and number and said the owner would call me back tomorrow. Well after a couple calls and texts over the next couple weeks I'm happy to have got my vest back on 8/31/12 and the owner sent it to me on his nickel and wouldn't take anything for it!! It was a great trip and for me the best part was all the sites/attractions in the Sturgis area more than Sturgis itself. I'm glad I went and experienced what Sturgis is but if you want to enjoy the roads & sites in this area I would go a week before the rally or stay after the rally although I'm told it's busy at other times but with more kids/families and less bikes. Below is a recap of the gas cost/consumption for the trip.