People,

I am back from a somewhat grueling motorcycle adventure to the adventure capital of the world - Ithaca, New York.

Why Ithaca? Well, good friend/old drinking buddy/star law student/ex-FXA-er Eric Franklin has just polished off his tenure the Cornell School of Law and he needed to do some celebrating. Add to that that it was a chance to ride the bike 750 miles in 3 days and it was a win-win situation.

My riding day Saturday started out at 6:30 AM and was FREEZING. I mean, cold. After ten miles I really didn't know if I was going to make it the 400 remaining miles to Ithaca. But I pulled over, got some coffee, allowed my popsicle-ized genitals to warm up a bit and steeled my resolve. I was rewarded about an hour later when I burst into the most glorious sunny day in Connecticut history. God damn it was beautiful.

It just got better as I entered New York and made my way through the Catskills. The sun was shining as I rode past river after river of full of fly fisherman and families out for the day. I rode over some gorgeous mountains and through incredible forests. NY17 I salute you.

After a long ride through the Catskill National Park I stopped for gas and ice cream. Along my way I had picked up about a hundred dead bugs on my windshield and so cleaning it was my top priority. I grabbed that squeegee thing they have at gas stations and washed all the nasty guts off the shield. Unfortunately, Podunk Catskill Gas does not perform very much squeegee maintenance and I realized after a minute of scrubbing that I was scratching the holy hell out of my windshield. Arg.

I was pissed but still in a relatively happy mood so I went into the station and got my ass an ice cream. I went outside and peeled off my protective gear so I could bask in the sun and the glory of the Nestle Crunch Ice Cream Bar. I took a bite, savored the deliciousness and turned my face up to the sun, at which point a torrential downpour started. God. Damn. It.

I spent the rest of my day racing the stormclouds and staring through a scratched ass windshield. Finally I made it to Cornell, a little battered but proud of getting there safely despite all the rain.

Day 1 Verdict - I gotta say that with all the scenery and sunshine, I was definitely more the windshield than the bug today.