Scott rode his bike to my house early this morning, and we hoped into the truck and spun the wheels down to the Madison airport. MSN. No Milwaukee for us any more this year. Yeeha! Not that Milwaukee is a bad airport, its just that there is something better about coming home to the Madison airport instead of the Milwaukee airport. There is something sort of cool about being “from” Madison. Sort of makes you feel like a hippee. Ya.
Anyway, when we arrived at Madison airport, there was just one screening machine working and the line was pretty long. Not quite missing your plane long, but not the normal breeze to get through like Madison airport can be. Oh well. Nothing to do in the airport anyway. The TSA people have new uniees and I think it has made them happier. Blue is a better color than white, apparently for a security uniform. I think they look dapper.
Since we were flying on Northwest, and I fly about a bazillion miles per year on Northwest – I got boosted up to the premiere class. Joe is in the house and ordering lots of service up in the front of the bus. Hey, how about some more pretzels here. Bring me a few of those bananas and a few of those little bags of nuts. They love me in 1st class.
But seriously, using your cell phone in 1st class while waiting for the door to be closed is just about mandatory. I mean, I always feel like some sort of interloper up there anyway. Flip flops, carharts, a tshirt, a motorcycle or bicycle magazine, an ipod with loud rock and roll etc… they love me in 1st class. I usually call my voicemail or something just to feel important up there also.
Today, there was some moron behind me using his cell phone on speaker phone. That way the whole of 1st class got to hear what he and his assistant had to say to each other. What a putz. Then, they closed the door and he just kept talking. I had heard enough about how the memo that he was reading just did not have proper grammar and how he was just a stickler for that sort of thing. I wanted to brain the dork with my shoe. If I am ever that much of a fleeb, just shoot me. Pleeze.
So we landed in Harrsburg, PA. I have not been to PA since I was a little kid and we took that trip to Gettysburg battlefield. I remember the battlefield being sort of a somber place. Everyone kind of whispers and talks softly. I just wanted to run across the field, jump the little fences with an imaginary bayonet screeming at the top of my lungs, and acting as if I was going to save the south or the north all by myself. Oh my.
Harrisburg PA, has the distinction of being right next to 3 mile island. That’s right, THE 3 mile island. I don’t know if it is encased in concrete and leeching into the watersupply or what. But, it was kind of eerie.
You can tell you are in Pennsylvania. Look closely and you can see we are at the intersection of Allentown and Hershey!
Scott had dropped the van and trailer at a bike shop in Harrisburg a few weeks earlier, after Snowshoe. There it was, all hunkered down and tough looking, ready to go. We told the nice people at the shop thanks, and hoped in the van – eager to get to upstate NY and sleep and start working on the bikes.
On the way, we went in and out of rain storms. We stopped in Wilkes-Barre PA, where Candi found us a Quiznos and a super Wally World. Wally World (Wal-Mart) is the anti christ, as far as Scott and I are concerned, but when traveling it is just about the easiest thing there is. Stop in, get batteries, groceries, talk to the greeter, show the cashier how to ring stuff up, grab some ice, use the rest room and the ATM machine and head out. Only I forgot to use the ATM machine there. I already mentioned that Quiznos is the top sandwhich shop on Candi’s search list now. I think she has decided that Quiznos sucks less than any other sandwich shop. And, they have that oven thing right there on the counter.
The guy making sandwiches at Quiznos was a sandwich artist. I have never seen anyone put the toppings on the sandwich that carefully. One more nail in the Subway coffin.
We are both starting to get into our sleeping bags here at the Unadilla facility. There is an unbelievable number of people here. There are a ton of generators, lots of quad people drinking beer and being stupid. But, hey they chose to ride something with 4 wheels, so… It is 11pm, and the people behind us have started their quads more than once. I guess they just want to make sure they will start tomorrow on the start line.
Lots of work on the bike tomorrow. It should be fun. In the rain.
Out for tonight.
Joe
303 Off-road 
You call your voicemail because you have no friends, poor guy. It’s because you are so intimidating, obviously.