This was it, the last leg, I was hoping for a big bonus on this leg, but there were none to be had. After looking over the bonuses Andrew Duthie and I decided to head into New York City. After NYC I knew how I would get back to Huntsville so no further planning was needed. Roy, Andrew and I all left at the same time and headed to the first bonus in Portsmouth, NH. We needed to pick up the oldest newspaper in the USA at a cigar shop. After a slight confusion about where the store was we found our way there. I signed the log, but almost left without my paper and was reminded to get it.
After leaving Roy to go his own way in Portsmouth, Andrew and I left for NYC. We made one stop for gas and some hot chocolate and made our way into the city around 2am. We found the Apollo Theater pretty quickly and snapped pictures of each other then decided on the best way to get to the Wall Street Bull the quickest. I suggested taking Broadway since the bull sits on Broadway and he agreed.
We hopped onto Broadway and were making good time, catching most of the lights and enjoying NYC at 2am. Then Broadway starts to make its crazy turns without notice so we ended up going the wrong way down one-way streets. This wasn’t too bad really because we just turned the right way since no one was on the streets. Then around the halfway point there was lots of construction going on. There were lots of potholes, tons of metal plates all of which made the ride even more fun. On top of all the fun due to construction there were the taxies, I think they were trying to race us or something, that and even with three lanes they loved to crowd us. It really wasn’t that bad though and Andrew seemed to really enjoy it, it was one of the more interesting parts of the trip, and probably most memorial.
While we were snapping our pictures a woman, whom I’m guessing was drunk, and the guy she was with crawled up onto the bull. I guess they thought we were doing the same thing and decided to join in. Andrew and I then decided to take off and left NYC through the Lincoln tunnel. Andrew decided that he wanted to stay in the area to pick up more points the next day and I decided to head to the finish.
Since I knew the area I pushed through all of New Jersey along I-76. I stopped for gas in Pennsylvania because I didn’t want them to pump my gas in New Jersey since they tend to spill it everywhere. Well I got to the first station and it was closed, since I knew it might be quite a ways to find another station I paid at the pump and in the dark got gas all over the place anyway. This really upset me so I decided to get a room and collect the rest bonus. I went looking for a hotel and found nothing for a while. Then at the first sign for a hotel I pulled off, after a 10-minute search of the area following signs I couldn’t find the damn place so I gave up. I was pretty mad at this time and really wanted to find a place. I decided that if I couldn’t find a place at the next exit I would just keep on going and get the rest bonus at the end. Well I ended up finding a place and got my sleep.
The next morning I headed off on I-76 and then down I-81. About 15 minutes before I got onto I-81 there was an accident that stopped both sides of the highway. Since the accident happened on the northbound side our side was moving, though at a snail’s pace. Here I meet up with Leonard Aron who was stopped along the side of the road with his Indian. I stopped to ask if everything was ok and he told me that he was trying to ride up the shoulder of the road to keep from burning up his motor but was told to stop. He then told me he was going to get some sleep so along the side of the road he laid down and slept.
My next stop was Hagerstown, MD where I needed a gas receipt. I knew right where I wanted to stop and I wanted to get something to eat. I knew I only had around 750 miles to go and almost 24 hours to do it in so I wanted to get a real meal. I stopped at the Waffle House and had brunch. A couple of hours later I was feeling a little tired so I stopped at a rest stop for a little bit. When I was getting ready to leave I saw Harry Kaplan and we decided to ride together. Around 6 or 7 Harry wanted something to eat so we stopped and for the second time that day I had a sit-down meal at Waffle House.
A bit after nightfall Harry wanted to stop and get some sleep so I decided to stop with him even though I wasn’t really tired. After lying down for a bit I decided that I would leave Harry a note and get on my way. Just as I was about to leave Roy, a friend of his, and Leonard all pulled in. Leonard needed a little help holding up his bike so he could check out some fluids so I helped him and then left.
The rest of the night was pretty uneventful; I got my last bonus in Chattanooga, TN. I meet up with a couple of riders here and there but rode the last 400 or so miles alone. I took the wrong exit in Huntsville since the directions didn’t have how to get there, I guess they wanted us to remember after two weeks, but the road I did take ended up being the same access road, just a few miles away. I got in around 4am and the parking lot was deserted, I would have thought that there would have been plenty of people but I was the only one. I got my room and waited the extra hour and refused to sleep so that I wouldn’t get timed bared for sleeping through the last checkpoint. I ended up being 56th out of 93 finishers of 110 plus starters. I was the highest finisher who did not leave the continental US. I ended up with a total of 64,788 points and 8,811 miles.
Pictures for Leg Four
Leg Three: Sunnyside, WA to Gorham, ME