And there it was, right there in front of us. Newark.
Mulley was in the lead but it wouldn't have mattered had anyone else been in that spot. I don't believe Newark discriminates nor picks favorites.
I honestly believe the wheels came off at the very first split in the interstate system. We took the wrong split. You'd think it would be so easy. We are all reasonably bright, educated guys. Many, many miles of riding all over North America and some additional riding in a few international destinations. We had prearranged routes and tracks running on nice GPS devices.
Didn't matter. We went the wrong way.
The Interstate signs should all just read something like this: "I-95 North Ahead. Pick a lane. You might get lucky"
One really neat thing about the Newark interstate system: If you make a mistake you need not worry, there will be another opportunity in about 10 seconds to make another mistake and before you know it, you have no clue where you are.
The GPS is constantly saying "Rerouting".
At one point in time I remember seeing a sign along the lines of "Last Exit before Holland Tunnel". I think it was Holland Tunnel. Might have been Lincoln Tunnel. But in any event, a ride through the tunnel into Manhattan was not on my "To-do" list that day. We exited.
Maybe it was then. Maybe it was some other time. I honestly do not know. It was all, the whole thing, one miscue after another. Despite my desires and my attempts at proper planning, execution had failed and we were on the surface streets of hot, congested Newark, New Jersey, USA!
What a treat!
(Darrin pic)
We couldn't help but laugh and joke about it. The one place I had NOT wanted to be was EXACTLY where we were!
All part of the experience and nobody got the least bit bent over it. We just laughed about it and plowed ahead.
And were soon back on the interstate.
To add a further element of delight to the experience, these interstate roads are often toll roads. At some point in the debacle we came to a toll booth. Unmanned. Just machines and empty booths and a little button to push to get your ticket.
Yep. You guessed it. My little button, no matter how many times I pressed it, the result was the same: a blank stare on the part of both me and the ticket-spitter-outer machine.
Nothing. No ticket. Screw it. I pulled way from the hibernating ticket machine with no ticket on an interstate road that I wasn't certain even took me where I wanted to go in a city I had not even wanted to slow down in. Things could, and would, continue to go downhill.
Darrin was behind me. Same thing for him. No ticket.
Mulley and Lincoln had hit a different booth. Their machine had been awake and friendly towards them. They both had tickets.
We all pulled away from the toll booth area. Our next opportunity for a mistake smacked us in the face about 10 seconds later.
There's an exit ramp onto some other interstate looking road! Let's take it!
Doesn't matter where it goes 'cause we don't know where we are going!
I do not remember how it came to be but we all came to an abrupt halt on the shoulder of that exit ramp. The exit ramp we had just split off onto immediately split again for yet another opportunity to play Roll the Dice. We discussed right vs wrong for a minute or so and Mulley, still in the lead, sped away. Nobody else followed. We realized he had (Surprise!) chosen the wrong way.
He had taken the right fork and we needed to go to the left fork. Interstate traffic buzzed by and there was one of those concrete island things, a few inches high, that are found where roads split. It's like a little slice of cement pie that serves to help define the two options.
Our desired option was on the other side of one of those little cement pieces of interstate pie. No worries. We were on motorcycles and when you gotta go, they will go.
And so we did. A gap in traffic, whack the throttle and it's just a hop, skip and a jump over the piece of cement pie and we are on the proper road.
Problem was, Mulley was long gone. Somewhere. Headed in the wrong direction.
The three of us stopped again.
Mulley and Darrin both have fancy Bluetooth gadgets in their helmet. They can listen to music and... make phone calls.
Darrin called Mulley. I wasn't privy to the conversation but as Darrin related it to us after the call was over, Mulley had found himself approaching yet another toll both. Apparently his sense of direction was good enough that day to let him know that passing through that toll booth would have him committed to going way the wrong way.
A venture through the median offered a solution to that problem and so Mulley availed himself of the opportunity, crossed the median and found himself on the same interstate we were on, just 5 to 10 miles behind us. Darrin told Mulley we would ride a little further and stop and wait for him.
I was in the lead.
We came to the other end of the section of road that was the toll road that I did not have a ticket for. I explained to the lady.......
"Me and the guy behind me. We pushed the button over and over. Both of us. At the blah blah blah booth. No ticket.
No ticket."
Sorry. I'll have to charge you the maximum.
"What!? Your machine won't give me a ticket and because it won't work I have to pay the maximum?"
Sorry sir. $14.50
"$14.50 to ride about 4 miles of interstate? That's the most expensive 4 miles I had ever traveled in my life."
She smiled. I paid the $14.50 and waited on Darrin to do the same.
When Darrin had talked to Mulley he had told Mulley we would ride a bit further down the road and wait for him and that is what we did. As we started across the bridge over the Hackensack River I pulled off onto the wide shoulder where we three stopped to wait.
Mulley rolled up a few minutes later.
We had a few laughs but by golly Newark was behind us. NEWARK WAS BEHIND US!!
But we were not out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.
We had reasonably thought Sunday afternoon would be a good time to traverse the Newark/New York area. We would miss the busy commute times and busy day traffic of the work week.
Yes. Sunday afternoon should be a good time.
We found out later
Just.
How.
Wrong.
we had been.
