I was right - a great sunrise. Although after climbing down the path to the Boat House - I found Rick had already been there for a half hour or more. Beaten to a Sunrise in my old age - damn!

More of the same - had a good chance to talk to Rick down there by ourselves... covered everything from wives and kids to work and future rides. Glad to have the opportunity away from everyone to do that.

 
10am found us breakfasted, showered, packed and eager to hit the road again. John and Nancy stayed behind to tidy up the camp for their next kin to show up and stay a week. John and Nancy had been there a little over a week already and it was their last morning in camp. We said our goodbyes and Rick and Kendra, Kim and I rode off waving goodbye to some new friends.

The day started off nice, but slowly started to cloud over. Weather forecasts called for afternoon storms and the end to our idyllic ride of the last few days. Rick was Road Captain today - this being his old stomping grounds since he was a kid. We stopped at several lakes - all beautiful - and popped into a tavern or two on the way to Old Forge, where we were thinking of spending the night. Had lunch at a roadside cafe, and Kim did some shopping for the kids, but the clouds were looking ominous, and Rick and Kendra decided to head on home before it got too bad and they got stuck here. From Old FOrge they headed east towards Utica, and we flipped a coin to either follow them, or speed up our schedule, go back into the park to finish seeing the southern part, and ride as far as the rain would let us. Back into the park won.

Backtracking to Blue Mountain Lake, then south we rode for about 30 minutes before we passed John and Nancy's bike in front of a little cafe in Indian Lake. I pulled a tight U-Turn and joined 'em again for a drink and watched them eat their late lunch - rode off again for another 20 miles and left them at the intersection they were going to use to head west towards home - donning their rain gear - it had been sprinkling for the past 10 miles.

We rode on south towards the exit of the park, stopped at a Best Western to watch the Weather channel in their lobby, and determined this light sprinkle will probably keep up for hours but nothing heavier. At this point - Adirondacks behind us - our decision was to just hit the 4 lane before the front caught up with us, and make tracks. Got as far as Kingston, NY before it slammed into us, so we got a room for the night, not 150 miles from Philly and our car/trailer.