We sat for a couple of hours outside the second delivery and tried to get a load so we didn’t have to lay over the weekend in Massachusetts. After 5 o’clock and nothing.... There was a load in Virginia that paid good and picked up Saturday or Sunday, but 800 kms from where we were. Tossed it around for a half hour - ‘yes’ it pays good, ‘no’ it is too far to deadhead. Then decided to take it - to make some money over the weekend instead of sitting.
Friday evening and Saturday we deadheaded to Montross, Virginia and loaded 16 ‘Carry-On Trailers’ on Sunday morning. A beautiful area of Virginia, south of Washington, DC in a less populated area. Montross has a population of about 400 - a very tidy town.This load went to Maine - 600kms north of where we delivered Friday afternoon! There were four deliveries - all going to Lowe’s Hardware Stores. Stops in Scarborough, Portland and Thomaston, Maine on Monday 1 June. We travelled some beautiful back roads of eastern Maine. Islands, inlets, bays and rivers - very nice.
Tuesday morning we delivered the last four trailers in Presque Isle, Maine, then went further north to Van Buren, Maine to load. Van Buren is across the river border to the Canadian Province of New Brunswick and close to Quebec. So close that French is the language spoken there.
We loaded mulch and delivered that the next day at a Landscape Centre in Connecticut. Loaded pavers and supplies that afternoon in Massachusetts. Delivered that to a Home Depot near Rochester, New York. That was it for the week - it was the weekend of the Western New York Moto Guzzi Rally. Joe organized the rally last year, but this was his first year as the Moto Guzzi National Owners Club Western New York Representative - so a big deal for him.
Joe went to Westfield on Thursday and we travelled down with Jimmy and the Pfalzer family on Friday. Michele had a car load of equipment and food and she took camping gear for us.
Jim’s first requirement was to replace the worn front tyre on the le mans. The new tyre was bought to the rally by a guzzi dealer who bought three demo bikes.Friday night there were over 80 people there! Dinner was an excellent beef stew made by Michele, then Frank and Penny cooked heaps of Buffalo style chicken wings. 114 people attended in all.
The “Rally in the Vineyard”, this is the fifth time we have attended the rally here - so I have previously given a lot of details about the area - vineyards, grapes, grape juice, wine....
21 wineries along the Chautauqua Lake Erie Wine Trail, six major juice and grape processors.
Nestled between Lake Erie and the Allegheny Plateau, 30,000 acres of verdant vineyards blanket America’s Grape Country. Growers here harvest more than 165,000 tons of Concord grapes each year. 100% Concord grape juice packs twice the natural anti-oxidant power of orange juice. The area is the oldest Concord grape-growing region in the world.
Grape juice became America’s favourite drink after thousands tasted samples at Chicago’s World Fair In 1897, Dr Welch and his son transferred their juice operation to Westfield, New York. It has thrived there ever since.
Welch’s donated 200ml bottles of their concord grape juice to everyone who registered for the Moto Guzzi Rally! I had to give them a plug!
Saturday morning started the winery tours. We visited four wineries, then relaxed at a bar in Maysville beside Lake Chautauqua.A couple had to be rescued that evening - they had a rear tyre puncture, so Jim had another tyre job!
Saturday evening was chicken barbeque and the awards presentation., then the big bonfire.
Weather stayed nice, sunny during the day and cool nights.
A group of four riders headed off early Sunday morning and about 6 kms from the campground, the first rider noticed movement on the side of the road, the second rider saw a deer, the third rider hit the deer in it’s belly. The fourth rider went to the scrub on the other side to avoid the carnage.
Firstly, the rider who hit the deer was wearing full protective gear and sustained no life threatening injuries - his helmet cracked and he suffered a brain bleed, seven broken ribs and a punctured lung. Because the deer exploded, Lee, his bike and the road was awash with blood, guts and poop. When the emergency team arrived they immediately called Life Flight - it looked a lot worse than it was. The gore was from the deer not the motorcyclist.Joe picked up Lee’s bike in the trailer and took it to his place, Scott (the lead rider) had his wife meet him with the car and trailer and loaded his bike and came back and picked up Lee’s bike from Joe’s.
Not the ideal end to a great rally.
Monday afternoon, 8 June was the “Meet the New Casey Family“ at Jim‘s Aunt Marguerite‘s in South Buffalo. From the South Carolina Casey’s: Joseph Jr (the 2nd), and Pat and his wife, Belinda were there. From Jim‘s family were Aunt Marg, and three of her six children - Jim’s cousins Marguerite (‘Rite, and her husband Mike), Tommy and wife JoAnn, and Maryanne. Jim’s mother, Helen, Jim’s sister Patty, Joe and Michele, Jimmy, Jim and I.
It was totally comfortable and felt as if we all had met previously - like friends we had not seen for a while. Marguerite was totally at ease with her brothers and they with her. Almost eighty years since their father left his Buffalo family - it was a bit surreal. We swapped stories, photos and information all afternoon and ended up getting pizza and wings. Spent six hours there and partied and laughed. Marguerite (84) stayed and partied almost till the end. She had to say ’goodbyes’ from her recliner, but she had the BEST day! Having two new brothers is very special for her! As well as learning things about her father and piecing together his life after he left Buffalo. No one has any idea why he left and was not heard of again.
Tuesday we were all tired from an active and draining four days, we didn‘t actively look for a load. Our phone and internet does not work well at Joe’s place. Jim helped Joe do some yard work.
Wednesday we packed up and went to the truckstop in Buffalo, we had phone and Internet service there. Jimmy was on his way to the truckstop as well to drop off paperwork, we had breakfast with him.
We set up a load for the next day near Rochester, so we stayed the night at the truckstop and Jimmy and Bob Walters stopped by about 5pm and picked us up in Bob’s 1958 Ford retractable hard top convertible. Bob started restoring it 19 years ago and finally has it close to finished. We had to go cruising with the top down. Stopped for beers and dinner at Otto’s Bar and Grill in Cheektowaga. They returned us to the truckstop about 9pm.It was heaps of fun, and the car received plenty of attention!
Loaded Thursday afternoon in Canandaigua, New York. It was a concession kiosk and a tilt flatbed wrecker truck was needed to load it on the trailer. It took up 10 feet of trailer and weighted about 2,000 lbs, so we were almost ‘empty’ leaving New York for California, but it paid for a full load.
The trip west was a nice change - we had not been to California for a year (guzzi rally last year in June). Weather warmed up.
We got to San Diego just after lunch on Monday but could not deliver until the next morning, so we parked at the San Diego Airport which is the marshalling yard for tradeshows (we knew we could park there) and took the trolley into the Gaslamp District of downtown San Diego. A trucker friend told Jim about the bar he found there - 255 draft beers on tap. We got off the trolley, walked a block and found it right away! The Yard House - we tried several different beers: Arrogant Bastard (Dave and Linda had discovered on their last visit to San Diego), Slim Chance and others I've forgotten names. We had a lovely meal there and were back to the truck by 9pm.We lined up a tilt flatbed wrecker to unload the concession kiosk on Tuesday morning next to the Giant Dipper Roller Coaster at an amusement park! Delivery went smoothly, we had a very nice and co-operative tilt truck driver - that helped a lot because it was not ‘normal’ and needed special attention. The owner of the concession kiosk has several concessions at Belmont Amusement Park, Mission Beach. He invited us to his ice cream store and we could choose anything we wanted! All righty!! Great big ice creams for us!
Belmont Park Website: Mission Beach is the centre of a continuous stretch of beach known as The Strand, which extends over two miles. The Strand is the most popular beach area in the City of San Diego and draws large crowds in summer.
The Giant Dipper Roller Coaster opened to the public on July 4, 1925.It was originally built as a key attraction for the 33-acre Mission Beach Amusement Center, which had opened just a few weeks earlier.
The Mission Beach Amusement Center was popular through the 1930's and 40's and in later years it was renamed, Belmont Park. By the late 60's and early 70's Belmont Park fell into disrepair and the park and coaster finally closed in December 1976. In the early 80's the coaster became an eye sore in the heart of Mission Beach. After surviving several fires, peeling paint and becoming the home for local transients, the owner of the coaster was under a lot of pressure to have it torn down and the demolition date was set.A group of concerned citizens called "Save The Coaster Committee," had the coaster designated as a National Landmark and asked that the ownership be transferred to them.
It was a an old style amusement park - free entry! Just pay for the rides, right next to the beach and specialty shops and restaurants.
Bill Linehan is a distant cousin of Jim’s that I discovered online doing Casey genealogy. He has been researching the Casey’s for 20 years and shared his research with me. I arranged to meet him at a truckstop in San Bernardino (LA area) and we had coffee with him and his elderly mother on Tuesday afternoon. Jim’s great grandfather and Bill’s great great grandfather was Roger Casey. We spent an hour and a half talking and looking at old photos Bill has yet to identify. Bill and I have been emailing back and forth for a couple of months, it was nice to meet him.
Wednesday we loaded at Buoye Honey Farm in Redlands, east of Los Angeles. They were ’empty’ bee crates. Yes, empty of the honeycomb, but the bees that had been evicted were trying to return. As the day warmed up and the hives were disturbed by the forklift - they became more aggressive. There was constant buzzing, and swarming around the whole truck.It took three hours to load them. The workers had on full coveralls and hat/nets - I could hear them swatting and swearing! They loaded and tarped.
I am extremely allergic to insect bites and stings - I stayed in the cab...!!! I got out to take some photos and immediately had a dozen on me, but was not stung. Jim got one sting and got back in the cab quickly.
After loading and tarping there were still swarms of bees - very thick about two feet deep all around the truck.
Driving through city streets with bees is comical. Stopping at lights and watching people madly wind up their windows, and pedestrians on the corner take several quick backward steps!
We drove via Las Vegas, Salt Lake City to Rawlins, Wyoming then zig zagged north to Spearfish, South Dakota, and straight north into North Dakota.
Friday night we stayed in Watford City, North Dakota at a small fuel stop. We walked two blocks into the town and had a couple of beers at “City Bar”. It was a warm night!
It is unbelievably green up here - rolling hills of grassland. We drove through Theodore Roosevelt National Park which was a series of canyons cut through the hills - very unexpected and beautiful. Saw several herds of buffalo, too.
Drove the 150 kms to Plaza in Saturday morning - through Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Lake Sakakewea is the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers - a beautiful big lake we followed the northern shore.
Website: The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is home to the Three Affiliated Tribes (TAT) which consists of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara people. There are 9,500 enrolled members of the Three Affiliated Tribes and currently the resident Indian population of the Reservation is approximately 3,776.
We delivered at Buoye Honey Farm near Plaza Saturday morning. Most of the California bees had gone, but the new bees could smell honey and they zero-ed in on us! We were again surrounded by bees and buzzing!
The bees were not aggressive this time at delivery, the man on the forklift was not in bee protective gear, so both Jim and I un-tarped and rolled up straps and the bees were on us, but no stings! It was very daring actually - thrill seekers that we are! I even had one land on my face for a while! The tarps were very, very sticky with honey.
We were almost finished, just putting away the last bit of equipment and I noticed that a window was down in the cab. I didn’t want bees getting there, so I jumped in the cab, reached over to wind up the window, leaned on the headrest and put my forearm on a bee - which stung me! So I got through all that daredevil danger and got stung in the truck cab!
My arm swelled up to three times it’s normal size, the first two days I had throbbing pain, then a swollen and itchy arm for a week! Obviously I am still allergic!
After delivering we headed to Minot, North Dakota to wait for a load. We had no cellular phone signal or Internet signal for most of two days while driving western Dakotas. We hoped Minot would be a better position to get a load. There is an Air Force Base there, but the truckstop had several empty flatbeds and step decks sitting Saturday afternoon, so it didn’t look good for getting a load out of there either.
We sat for three days... no loads. Minot’s population is approx. 40,000 people.
Website: Minot came into existence in 1886, when the Great Northern Railroad ended its push through the state for the winter, after having difficulty constructing a trestle across Gassman Coulee. A tent town sprung up over night, as if by "magic", thus the city came to be known as the Magic City, and in the next five months, the population increased to over 5,000 residents, further adding to the nickname's validity.
We filled in time working around the truck and trailer. Wandered around the historic down town area of Minot. A very interesting railway station, now a museum. Minot is a support city for the surrounding agriculture and cattle industries.
Tuesday afternoon we left Minot and headed south to Colorado and the Moto Guzzi National Owners Club 38th National Rally this year in Salida, Colorado (1500kms deadhead).
We took some back roads and Interstate highway down through North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming to Cheyenne. Mostly grasslands except for the Black Hills area of South Dakota. A leisurely trip.
Friends from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Derek and Cindy Bird had been travelling Wyoming and Colorado for a week prior to the Moto Guzzi Rally and they called us Wednesday afternoon from central Wyoming. The front tyre on their BMW motorcycle was almost down to the cord and was effecting the handling. With two people on and loaded with camping equipment, it was dangerous. We stopped in Fort Collins, Colorado and wandered around the historic old town for a couple of hours waiting to hear from Derek and Cindy.
About 3.30pm we met them at the rest area near Fort Collins and talked them out of continuing another 200+ miles on that tyre. We loaded their bike on our empty trailer and we all had a fun ride in the truck! We took the smaller highways after Denver and experienced traffic congestion, heavy rain and twisty roads in the truck and then the last hour in the dark. Derek and Cindy were very thankful not to be on the bike. We dropped them off at a motel in town and Jim and I continued to the campgrounds. It was around 10pm.
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