After our conversation, I decided I would map out a couple of possible routes. I hate pounding the highway all day so I figured I'd find a couple of back roads we could use if nobody had any better ones to run.
I arrived at Dave's place about 10 minutes before 10:00 AM the following morning. Turns out a couple of the folks who were supposed to tag along were running a little late so we would be waiting a while. That turned into a little better than an hour...
I discovered I was going to share the day's ride with a very good friend of ours. Sharon has been a dear friend of Chris and I for 8 years. She decided to join us for the ride. Though she has limited experience on a bike, she makes a great passenger.
Well, our adventure began shortly after 11:00. We began the journey in downtown Southwick. As I figured would be the case, nobody had taken the time to map out the trip so I took the lead.
We headed out through Westfield and picked up Route 23. We followed 23 all the way out to New York. What a beautiful road to ride. It runs though some beautiful country in the Berkshires. I'd never run this route beyond Great Barrington before today. I'm glad I did and hope to again soon.
Route 23 takes you directly to the Taconic Parkway in New York. This is an amazing little highway that's off limites to commercial traffic. Seriously, no trucks! It's a beautiful, four lane highway that runs at 55 MPH. No need to bust your hump at 70, instead you get to cruise along at a nice leisurely pace on a well kept road. One word of caution, try to avoid this road at dawn and dusk on a bike. There's tons of deer and it's not unusual to see several road killed deer many times durring the year. The damage such a collision would cause a biker is frightening...
We ran the Parkway all the way down to Route 84 and headed West. We hit 84 a little East of the Hudson River. As we crossed the river, I tried to recall if this was indeed wider than the Missippi River... I've crossed that before, but it's been many years since I have so it's difficult to say. What a sight none the less!
Shortly after crossing the river, we exited the highway on to 17K, the road OCC is on. Unfortunately, the guy who was supposed to be on the ride who'd been there before hadn't made it. I hadn't mapped us to the retail location so I was working off of memory of the town they were listed in and my estimations off of the map.
I nailed it first try! Unfortunately, the location I got is to was the original retail location. This was closed last year upon the completion of the new OCC retail location that includes the new shop. From there we winged it and headed back East on 17K. A short time later we arrived at OCC.
The building is amazing. It's huge and absolutely beautiful. I took several pictures before entering to look around.
If you're a fan of the show, you'll be pleased to know that most of their largest custom projects are displayed throughout the store. The Black Widow, the Yankee's bike and many others are there for you to see and photograph. The work on these is absolutely incredible. Seeing these works of art in person, after watching many of them built on TV was truly a treat!
Though I was impressed with the building, and the custom bikes on display, I was a little dissapointed overall. OCC is a giant T-shirt shop. There were very few accessories available, and the shop bikes for sale were largely unimpressive. It's funny, I was feeling this and had each of the members of our party express the same thoughts. Paul, Junior, Mikey, if you're reading this, add some leathers and more riding accessories! We'll spend the money I promise...
Well, I purchased shirts for the whole family and even bought Christine her birthday present, a nice new pair of Winter gauntlets. She loved them!
It was getting late when we decided to hit the road and head home. Since some of the folks along weren't prepared with cold weather gear and the temp was cooling off quickly we decided to take the highways home. It was a bit cool by the time we arrived back at Dave's place but we all arrived safe.
Though the shop was a little dissapointing, the adventure certainly wasn't! Take the trip so you can say you did it. I promise, you'll enjoy the ride...