Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Saturday Sept. 2nd Braselton Georgia – Meadville Pennsylvania 1253 km
We had left the “sugar to the bottom” in terms of riding distances as we had to make it to Toronto by Sunday afternoon for the bikes to be dropped off. We made the route plan on Friday afternoon and found that in this case we’d better stay on the interstates and make sure that we are in Toronto in time.
So we started at 05:13 from Chateau Elan and took I-85 to Charlotte NC. From there we continued North on I-77 to Charleston WV and further to Meadville PA where we finally found a motel that had vacancy.
A “typical Ari” incident happened on this leg:
We pulled up to a gas station in Gassaway WV. I parked my bike by pump 11 and Jouko on the other side to some other pump. I used my Amex card to pay for the gas at the pump and then I went to help Jouko as he had some problems with his Visa payment. We also decided to ride to the neighboring Pizza Hut for a lunch. Jouko took off first and I mounted my bike, put my helmet on and rode after him. After the lunch I started looking for my wallet. Could not find it anywhere. I rode back to the gas station and started looking for the wallet by the pump, went inside to ask the cashier if anybody had returned a wallet. No luck. A guy on his pickup was filling his tank and he saw that I had something wrong and he gave me the valuable hint: As there are surveillance cameras hanging from the roof of the pump field, maybe one of them has the story recorded…
I went inside again and asked the ladies if they could run the film back about 30 minutes and the whole story was there: I mounted my bike and at the same time something fell on the ground from under my rain coat. This something (my wallet of course) was lying on the ground when a green Ford pulls up and two guys step out. They pay for the gas with their credit card and while they are filling their tank the other guy spots something on the ground on the other side of the pump. He goes and picks it up, looks inside and puts it in his pocket! There goes my Diners, Amex, 150 in cash, my European ID card, two insurance cards and a prepaid phone card.
The gas station shift manager (who had been called in from her day off for this incident) called the cops and after while a young Braxton county deputy sheriff pulls up with his Jeep.
We went through the whole story, I gave him my contact info and regretted that I have no time to stay longer as we had a plane to catch from Toronto. He promised to nail the guys which should not be too hard as all the evidence is there. The film that shows what happened plus the guy’s credit card transaction info that should give identity to the guy after right persons get involved to the investigation process.
Luckily I had my third credit card in a separate wallet and neither my famous 100 dollar driver’s licence was in this lost wallet. Plus I later realized that I have travel insurance that covers my losses anyway. So this was a good lesson. I have been trying to figure out what actually happened when the wallet fell. I had two jackets on which is a bit exceptional. I always keep my wallet in the left breast pocket inside the riding (mesh) jacket. I must have accidentally slipped the wallet between my rain coat and my mesh jacket instead of putting it in to the mesh jacket breast pocket when I walked to Jouko and helped him with his card payment. So the wallet stayed between my jackets until I mounted the bike and then it fell on the ground.
But I still blame Jouko as he was supposed to ride after me and pick up the stuff I drop behind me…Now why did he have to start before me and ride first to the Pizza Hut?? ;-)
We lost a valuable 1,5 hours with this incident but we still made all the way to Meadville PA, but not voluntarily. We would have stopped some 40 miles earlier at Hope Mills PA, but all the motels were full. The weather was getting worse...
Packing the bikes at Chateau Elan early morning.
Breakfast stop after some two hours.
Entering one of the few tunnels on the Interstate 79.
These truck escape roads were quite thrilling! We saw these already on our way South from Banff and I never had a camera available until now.
I wonder how often these get used by a semi with faded away brakes...
On the interstate near Denver we saw escape road that was built across the opposite lane to the left hand side! (Obviously there was nothing but a very deep ditch on the right side of the road...) Now that would not be nice to encounter a fully loaded brakeless semi rushing on to the escape road across my lane..
As I was sorting out my stupidity and the dishonesty of the other guy Jouko had nothing else to do than take pictures of the sheriff's Jeep...
So we started at 05:13 from Chateau Elan and took I-85 to Charlotte NC. From there we continued North on I-77 to Charleston WV and further to Meadville PA where we finally found a motel that had vacancy.
A “typical Ari” incident happened on this leg:
We pulled up to a gas station in Gassaway WV. I parked my bike by pump 11 and Jouko on the other side to some other pump. I used my Amex card to pay for the gas at the pump and then I went to help Jouko as he had some problems with his Visa payment. We also decided to ride to the neighboring Pizza Hut for a lunch. Jouko took off first and I mounted my bike, put my helmet on and rode after him. After the lunch I started looking for my wallet. Could not find it anywhere. I rode back to the gas station and started looking for the wallet by the pump, went inside to ask the cashier if anybody had returned a wallet. No luck. A guy on his pickup was filling his tank and he saw that I had something wrong and he gave me the valuable hint: As there are surveillance cameras hanging from the roof of the pump field, maybe one of them has the story recorded…
I went inside again and asked the ladies if they could run the film back about 30 minutes and the whole story was there: I mounted my bike and at the same time something fell on the ground from under my rain coat. This something (my wallet of course) was lying on the ground when a green Ford pulls up and two guys step out. They pay for the gas with their credit card and while they are filling their tank the other guy spots something on the ground on the other side of the pump. He goes and picks it up, looks inside and puts it in his pocket! There goes my Diners, Amex, 150 in cash, my European ID card, two insurance cards and a prepaid phone card.
The gas station shift manager (who had been called in from her day off for this incident) called the cops and after while a young Braxton county deputy sheriff pulls up with his Jeep.
We went through the whole story, I gave him my contact info and regretted that I have no time to stay longer as we had a plane to catch from Toronto. He promised to nail the guys which should not be too hard as all the evidence is there. The film that shows what happened plus the guy’s credit card transaction info that should give identity to the guy after right persons get involved to the investigation process.
Luckily I had my third credit card in a separate wallet and neither my famous 100 dollar driver’s licence was in this lost wallet. Plus I later realized that I have travel insurance that covers my losses anyway. So this was a good lesson. I have been trying to figure out what actually happened when the wallet fell. I had two jackets on which is a bit exceptional. I always keep my wallet in the left breast pocket inside the riding (mesh) jacket. I must have accidentally slipped the wallet between my rain coat and my mesh jacket instead of putting it in to the mesh jacket breast pocket when I walked to Jouko and helped him with his card payment. So the wallet stayed between my jackets until I mounted the bike and then it fell on the ground.
But I still blame Jouko as he was supposed to ride after me and pick up the stuff I drop behind me…Now why did he have to start before me and ride first to the Pizza Hut?? ;-)
We lost a valuable 1,5 hours with this incident but we still made all the way to Meadville PA, but not voluntarily. We would have stopped some 40 miles earlier at Hope Mills PA, but all the motels were full. The weather was getting worse...
Packing the bikes at Chateau Elan early morning.
Breakfast stop after some two hours.Entering one of the few tunnels on the Interstate 79.
These truck escape roads were quite thrilling! We saw these already on our way South from Banff and I never had a camera available until now.I wonder how often these get used by a semi with faded away brakes...
On the interstate near Denver we saw escape road that was built across the opposite lane to the left hand side! (Obviously there was nothing but a very deep ditch on the right side of the road...) Now that would not be nice to encounter a fully loaded brakeless semi rushing on to the escape road across my lane..
As I was sorting out my stupidity and the dishonesty of the other guy Jouko had nothing else to do than take pictures of the sheriff's Jeep...
