Centralia Run - DPO

Intro - Centralia Run aka DPO

Last year the idea for DPO came about in conversations when Jodi & Chris Drew, Jo & Chris Galley from Buffalo, and Kat (my wife) were discussing their Babes Ride Out (BRO) East Coast plans. The plan was to go with Kat and meet up with them at BRO's camp, stay the night, then pull out in the morning on a dudes only trip for the weekend with the Chrises while the ladies had their fun at BRO. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it due to selling my Sportster and trying to buy another one along with Sportster aftermarket parts on the weekend that the run fell on last year. It was super disappointing seeing Chris and Chris having all the fun, they posted on their social media accounts tons of photos and hash-tagged them #wheresmikeyrevolt. With envy and frustration of missing the run I made a point to make sure I wasn't gong to miss the next DPO. We also told a few more husbands / dudes to come along for the ride this year. With no real plan up until a week before we were to meet, Chris Drew and I mapped out a few destinations and decided to set up a base camp 20 mins south of BRO. The only real place we really wanted to visit was Centralia, Pennsylvania. Centralia is a town that is in the middle of nowhere that was shut down by the government because a coal mine that had caught on fire under the town in the 80's and is still burning to this day. Broken roads, graffiti highway, steam holes, missing houses and empty foundations seemed like the best place to be dumb kids and mess around for a day. Our other goal for the weekend was to "Rip to Dip" in a water fall or two. We wrote some addresses down and said we will figure out the rest when we got there. Who knew we would have gotten into so much more shit than what little we had planned for that weekend.

Day 1 - Cold, Foggy, and Every 60 Miles - 06.06.19

Kat and I woke up at 6 am on a colder than usual Thursday morning in June. We packed our bikes, coffee in hand and waited for our friends Endijs & Juli Willows and Danielle Pavan to show up at our house so we could start making our trek east towards Narrowsburgh, NY where BRO's East Coast is held. Endijs and Juli came right on time and had some coffee with us. Danielle is one to always be super late and we started to get worried that she wasn't going make it at all, when all of a sudden we heard in the distance her Triumph America come putting down my road. It was only 7:20 am and she was actually almost on time. We all laughed about it, gave her some high fives, and jumped on our bikes, stoked to hit the road. With the fog super dense that morning it made for getting out of the greater Cleveland area a bit harder than normal, traffic everywhere and no one was driving normally.

Every trip, Kat usually takes the lead and is always thoughtful to everyone's needs in the group, "How fast can I go and when do we need to get gas?" This trip she actually asked everyone in advance and mapped out all of our gas stops on the way to Narrowsburgh. Endijs and myself have some pretty small ass gas tanks compared to the girl's bikes. I have the Lowbrow Customs Narrow 1.9 gallon Sportster Frisco tank on the Shovelhead and Endijs modified a set of Lowbrow Customs WX Tanks to fit his 2018 fuel injected Wafflehead. With our guess, we told Kat we could possibly get anywhere from 60-70 miles per tank. Kat mapped out our stops according to just that, 60 miles per stop. Now, you would think that stopping every 60 miles would be overwhelmingly frustrating, but in fact it made for a great day of riding and relaxation. Every stop felt like we were getting closer and closer and the miles didn't hurt the body at all being on my hardtailed chopper. It was actually really nice.

The fog did not let up most of the morning. I can't remember the exact time it finally went a way but it had to of been around 1 or 2 pm before we started to see the sun peak out of the clouds. The entire morning was frigid and it kept me from thinking about my Shovelhead and how it was the first really long trip it was embarking on. After the 5th gas station stop and the sun was out we decided it was time to get something more in our bellies than just gas station snacks and road side pizza. Danielle being the social butterfly that she is, asked some locals what was good to eat around the area. They told us to check out the Country Kitchen just down the road. Man were they ever right. The dude that owned the place had 5 menus and met us at the door, asked how we were all doing and couldn't have been any nicer. We felt like we owned the joint. The food was pretty great too!

The entire trip was almost 12 hours on the road to Narrowsburgh with all of the gas station stops, but not once did it feel like it took that long for any of us. I couldn't believe my bike didn't have one bit of trouble nor did any of the other bikes that were with us. Yes, most of the other bikes were newer, but it was very odd to not have a single issue. The only time we had to stop on the side of the road was when we got close to the camp and my bag started to shift off my sissy bar. I also really had to take a leak so it was a good excuse. Other than that it was smooth sailing.

We made it to BRO safely around 7:30 pm, set up tents, and partied out the night with the rest of the ladies that were set up early. Chris Lacour was hangin out with a bunch of the Buffalo ladies when we arrived and Chris Drew, Craig Westfall, and Timmy Genco rolled into camp late around 12 am. Six dudes in total were there and ready to make the Centralia Run a real thing. The whole night we joked about how I missed the first year and how Chris Galley was missing this year's run. The new hashtag was established #wheresdevilchicken and we all laughed, excited for the morning to come.

Day 2 - Almost Dying, Pigs Can't Fly, Dukes of WRX Hazard, and Space Pizza - 06.07.19

My wife Kat always says, "Boys just get into trouble when the women aren't around." I'm not sure why it happens but man we had some crazy shit go down. From almost dying, to Craig kissing the pavement, to getting spaced out and seeing shit in the middle of the night riding back to camp. That first day of the Centralia run, hell the entire weekend is one for the record books on the craziness level.

Chris Drew's wild sporty Chop at the breakfast spot in the morning. He lost his kickstand on the way up so he had to lean it on everything all weekend long.

Waking up in the morning I had a chance to see one of my favorite ladies ever, Ashmore Ellis who is one of the co-founders of BRO. She gave me a huge hug and said. "I love ya a ton, but you boys have to be out of here by 10 am, no later!" in the most stern mom voice. I've never felt more unwanted somewhere in all my life, well until a bit later that weekend. I'll get to that a bit later. Packed up and ready to roll, the dudes pulled out and headed to a small diner down the street with Kat and Juli to have breakfast before we set off on our own for the rest of the weekend.

Chris Drew and I discussed prior to the trip that we would set up a base camp. He told me about this place 20 minutes south of Landers Campground where the girls were staying called Cedar Rapids Campground. "They have a bar / restaurant there and camping is only $20 bucks a night. Easy, convenient, and right on the river. Chris and I stayed there last year and it was super chill and laid back." Chris told me. So, that's exactly where we headed after breakfast.

While we checked in, everyone was super excited to get their tents set up and jam west towards Centralia. To the right of the campground office was a small pedestrian bridge that went over a river and into the primitive camping areas. We were instructed to stay on the top of the hill because there was only 6 of us and by the river was for parties greater than 10. We all jammed on the pedestrian bridge and rode up a steep hill to find some camp spots of our liking. Mind you there is absolutely no one set up at this campground when we got there. We were stoked to see there was no one there and we took up a few spots with our bikes parked by our tents, like everyone always does when moto-camping. One of the kids that helped us check in walked over to us and said, "Hey guys, can you not park your bikes here and can you not go over that bridge with your bikes?" We didn't think much of it and told him, "Sure, whatever man. When we are done setting up we are getting out of here all day so you won't have to worry about us being parked by our tents."

After getting our tents set up and making a few more cop jokes at Craig's expense, we set off towards Centralia. Craig was riding a freshly built FXR with S&S motor and a rare police FXDP fairing on it. We kept asking if he was a cop all day and told him he needed to tell us if he was. Typical joking around and dumb stuff you do on the road. Chris Drew was riding a Sportster with a long springer front end that is sketchy as hell. Timmy had just a normal stockish Sportster with a lot of custom work done to his tank and a rad sissy bar. And Chris Lacour was riding a scary XS650 chop that looked like it was gonna fall apart at any moment. We decided to take the back roads to Centralia and instead of it being two and a half hours to our destination it was going to take four or more hours to get there.

Right before we got on the road I asked Chris Drew, "If you see any auto parts stores on the way, could you please stop so I could get some oil and brake clean." My one and only brake rotor and caliper were pretty saturated with chain lube and tranny fluid (my tranny leaks a little). It was causing me to take a really long time to stop and in the mountains it can be a bit terrifying at times. With in a few minutes on the road Chris signaled to do a U-turn and yelled, "Lets check that Nostalgic Restoration shop out we just passed and see if they got what you need." As we rolled up the drive, Mark Van Acker comes walking out of his shop with a customer. He shakes the guys and hand and looks at all of us then immediately looks at Chris Drew's chopper and offers to buy the springer front end right off of it. After Chris politely declined Mark's offer, he asked us what we had going on today. I told him about the brake problem. "Well, I don't have any brake clean but we got some degreasers and or lacker thinner that will do the trick. If you are cool with that we can give it a shot." Mark told me. Out of options I told him, "Lets try and see." We took the caliper off and sprayed it down really well, then bled the brakes, sure enough there was a few air bubbles that came out. My dumb ass didn't take it off last time I bled them and the bleeder faces downward, so it left some air pockets. You always need your bleeder facing up when bleeding your brakes. He had some 50 weight oil laying around, so Timmy and I topped off and then I asked him what we owed him. Mark laughed and said, "You don't owe me anything at all, I just hope you guys have a safe trip. These are the kinds of things we love, old stuff... Do you want to see some of my old stuff?" It felt like something out of a TV show. We thanked him and got excited to see what Mark had going on at the shop. We walked around with him and his son for awhile and they showed us some of their toys. We also got to meet their new puppy who was the cutest little gurl. People like that just give me hope that there are still amazing human beings in this world. If you are ever in a bind and in Greeley, PA area look up Nostalgic Restorations and Sales. Mark and his family are the best.

Getting back on the road after saying our goodbyes to Mark, it was smooth sailing. After about 65 miles of ripping up back roads I signaled to Chris Drew who was leading the pack that we should stop and get gas. We hit a red light and he just nodded to me that he understood as we came to a stop. We were all still really excited to be going to this burning underground city of whatever, not knowing really what to expect to see. The green light turned and all at once the six of us took off jamming through all our gears. I noticed a mini van ahead of us but it was moving and pretty far in the distance on the two lane road we were ripping down. I noticed the oncoming traffic was seven or so bikes rolling heavy. I got extremely excited to see them, and I did the dumb waive of my hands like a teenager instead of throwing down the typical deuces, because motorcycles are supposed to be fun, not serious people! Oh it got f*cking serious in a hurry though... In the corner of my right eye I saw a blinker flashing. I turned my head and realized that mini van that was in front of us was now only about 30 feet ahead and it had no brake lights. It was completely stopped in the middle of the road and ready to turn left. I have no idea how my brain reacted as quick as it did but I hit the brakes, which thank god we just fixed. I skidded to the left a little then gunned it trying to lean as hard as I could yet lane split between this f*cking mini van and these bikers. As my life flashed before my eyes, I prayed for the van to not turn in front of me picturing my self flipping over it and landing on my head. I felt my elbow graze the rear view mirror of the mini van and I came back to consciousness. All I could think after that moment was "My friends are dead, they are dead..." I looked back thinking I was about to see a horrific site and in fact everyone did exactly the same thing as me. Three of them split to the right between the van and the curb and the other two behind me did what I did. My stomach was in my throat and I rolled closer to Chris Drew and just grabbed his shoulder and screamed out loud in terror / relief. I bet the person in that mini van shit their pants just as much as we did.

We ate some of the best fried chicken at this gas station after almost all dying. Almost die, eat shitty food to celebrate.

After everyone hugged it out at the gas station and laughed off that we almost all just died, we ate some amazing gas station fried chicken in celebration. We shook off the terrors and got back on the road towards Centralia. It took another hour or so of riding and not one hiccup the rest of the way. As the map on the GPS said, "You have arrived." We looked around to see a bunch of nothing. Confused and kind of bummed we asked Chris Lacour who is from PA if he may know where to look for the rad places of Centralia. He lead the way to the graffiti highway and the entrances were blocked by huge mounds of dirt. With no hesitation and not giving a damn about anything at all, Chris Drew rolls right up on the first mound of dirt and gets stuck. Determined to get in he wiggled his bike back and forth and got over the first and second set of mounds like a boss. Everyone else's confidence went up after witnessing what he did and we followed right behind disregarding all no trespassing signs and safety.

Once you get over the second mound of dirt the excitement hits you like a brick wall, or maybe it was all the carbon monoxide that's in the air because there is still fires underground where you are standing. In any case I felt like I was on an adult playground of open roads that you could do anything on because no one was around. We started exploring it and riding quickly to see where this "rainbow highway" would take us. The whole highway is maybe a mile and half or two long and there is just graffiti everywhere, even on the plants that surround and cover the sides of it. Halfway through the highway we noticed a tabletop where the heat of the fires had actually broken up the ground. We made jokes, "Send it Endijs!" "Craig wheelie it!" A little farther passed the table top was some more broken pavement and a bit of a drop off if you were coming from the opposite direction. We all avoided it and kept going looking at the graffiti that was literally everywhere. As we reached the end of the highway we all got off our bikes and just hung out for awhile. One of my goals at Centralia was to shoot Endijs bike somewhere on "rainbow highway". The colors of all the graffiti and his black bike with just a bit of colored paint would really pop. I thought to myself that table top would be neat to shoot it on so I told Endijs and the guys that was what we were going to do for a bit. A few of the guys were making jokes about coast racing because it went down hill and Endijs, Chris and I fired up our bikes and took off towards the table top.

We parked Endijs bike on the table top into a good position and I started to take a few photos. In the distance I heard laughter and this wooowooowoo sound of bikes rolling but not actually running. I turned my head with a smile as I saw Craig in the lead of Chris Lacour and Timmy coast racing their bikes down the "rainbow highway". They were jamming pretty fast. Chris Drew and I were laughing and then realized Craig was heading right towards the jump that had the big drop off that we missed earlier. We pointed to turn and screamed "NOOOO!" Craig realized it and yelled out, "oh shitttt" as the FXR flew into the air. The front end came down aggressively harder then the rear and looked like it was about to flip end over end. The front wheel landed and hit a ton of gravel that was at the bottom of the drop off and took the bike right out from underneath Craig landing on his right side and the bike scraping a few feet. Craig did a barrel roll luckily missing his head but landed really bad on his right arm and chest. It was one of the most wild things to hear, surreal really. I've never heard a motorcycle crash like this. You could hear every bit and piece of it crushing, scraping, and smashing with out any motor noise. We all ran over quickly. "AM I F*CKING IN A BAD DREAM RIGHT NOW!" Craig screamed out loud with his hands in the air looking at the carnage that just happened. Craig is a big hardcore fan and he started screaming in his hardcore voice, "OH MY GOD! THAT DIDN'T JUST HAPPEN! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!" It kind of put a smile on our faces knowing he was ok and we couldn't tell if he was joking at first or serious with what he was saying.

As we checked out Craig and made sure he was ok, no concussion, and nothing broken we started to look over his bike. We scanned the ground to see if we could find any other parts that may have fallen off the bike. The crash bar was smashed pretty bad and thank god for it, it most likely saved his leg and definitely saved his motor. The FXDP fairing was a bit more tore up than we thought, and the turn signals on the right were completely ripped out, sucks because those are pretty hard to come by. Out of no where a handful of jeeps rolled up behind us and Endijs asked if one of them had a first aid kit with them to help wrap up Craig's arm a bit because it was started to bleed more. They were very helpful and wrapped him up pretty good. After knowing Craig was going to be ok I went back to shooting Endijs bike because we were starting to loose day light.

The adrenaline started to wear off with Craig and he started to get a little more bummed by the whole ordeal. He told us he wanted to roll to a hospital to get his arm looked at, cleaned out, and make sure there wasn't any rocks or infections. We triple checked he was ok enough to ride and he ended up going on his own. We all apologized to him and said we felt bad for not wanting to go with him but he wasn't dying, nothing was broken and he had no concussion. He had some bad scrapes but nothing that couldn't of been taken care of at a later time. Don't get me wrong if he had a broken arm, or anything else seriously wrong we would have for sure been there for him and even taken him our selves, it just didn't seem necessary. I still feel a little shitty about it because yes he could have used our moral support, but he was really ok. He is a grown man and has the right to make his own decisions and his was to go get it checked out.

As Craig rolled off to the hospital a WRX filled with three teenagers rolled in. The car looked like it had been jumped off a cliff and back, cracked windshield and doors falling off the hinges. I asked the driver if he was planning on jumping that table top or something and he gave me the biggest smile and said, "Hell yeah!" We all laughed and continued to watch these kids destroy this car off this table top for an hour or more. "I'm pretty sure we might see this car barrel roll!" Chris Lacour yelled to us from across the highway. Fearless as ever, those kids ramped off that table top a half dozen times, going faster and faster each time. It was some pretty good entertainment. After saying our goodbyes to the crazy WRX teenagers we hit the road knowing we had to get some gas in the bikes and food in our stomachs.

We all felt a little tired and hungry after leaving Centralia. I was a little bummed I didn't see more broken roads and stuff but we still had a pretty exciting time. As we stopped for gas, we noticed across the street there was this little pizza shop. We pushed our bikes over and ordered up two large pepperoni and cheese NY style pizzas. We were so hungry that as soon as the pizzas came out we started to smash them in our faces. I burnt the hell out of the roof of my mouth but washed it down with a warm Sam Adams that Endijs had smuggled from camp with him all the way there. We finished the pizzas pretty quickly and got back on our bikes as the sun started to set. We decided to jump on the highway to make the trip go a bit quicker back to base camp. It definitely did nothing of the sorts, it felt like we were riding for 5 or more hours. I don't know what was in that "Space Pizza" or "Groovy Fried Chicken" or if we just huffed to much carbon monoxide at Centralia but all of us saw trippy shit the whole way back to camp. The road looked like trees are laying in the middle of it, the yellow lines looked like tracers, and deers eyes looked like devil eyes. I even saw two children in the middle of the road that weren't even there holding hands. Chris Drew said it felt like he was in the movie Tron and all he could see was traces of brake lights and yellow lines blur together. I think he might of broke edge that night with out even knowing. It doesn't help that all he had with him was a cheap pair of women's sunglasses; riding at night doesn't go really well with that type of eyewear. Endijs and Timmy also seemed really out of it and we some how lost Chris Lacour. It was trippy ride back to camp and I can't explain how or why we made it back all in one piece. When we got back to camp being that we were in that delirious state we rode our bikes across that pedestrian bridge the campground told us not to ride on and parked our bikes by our tents. There was two parties going on down on the river camping spots, they were super loud and partied all night. We sat by a fire in a half daze for a bit and went to bed around 1 am.

Day 3 - Taking It Easy, Shohola Falls, We Are Getting Arrested Because of You - 06.08.19

We woke up pretty early to the Bronx dudes down at the lower camp spots by the river shouting, playing corn hole, and blowing off fire works. They were really loud all night but my ear plugs came to the rescue. I don't think they stopped partying to be honest with you, just kept it going into the next day. As I went down to use the restroom facilities one of the kids that worked at the campground said to me, "Hey man, we asked you guys nicely not to park by your tents and to park in the lot." My eyes were half open and I looked over at him and replied, "We got in pretty late last night and we were all really tired. Sorry we didn't think it was that big of a deal." He looked frustrated and just walked off. As I walked back to camp I asked the guys if they were still up for going to Seneca lake. Everyone laughed and Chris Drew asked, "Can we just take it easy today?" So that's what we planned, just to take it easy. Grab some coffee, grab some breakfast, maybe swim in some waterfalls, get some drinks later in the night and stay by the camp fire. Easy enough plan and we started it off by going to Stickett Inn / Pinks for coffee. (Ha it's a clever name!).

Coffee at Pinks hit the spot and we decided to head over to The Heron in Landers because they have some of the best food in that area. Craig told us after breakfast he was going to scoot on home because he was super sore and just wanted to lay in bed. His hospital visit the night before went well. They cleaned his arm out really well and gave him some antibiotics in case it got infected. He made it back to camp around 1:30 am or so when we were all passed out from our "Space Pizza" trip. We begged him to stay and just hang out, that it was gonna be an easy day but he had already made up his mind. At the end of a glorious breakfast we said our goodbyes to Craig #bestfall aka the cop and he took off back home to Buffalo. It was sad to see him go but we understood. And then there was five. We discussed more about swimming and rolled back to camp to get our swim trunks. As we pulled up to the area where the camp ground was, we missed the driveway to the parking lot where we were supposed to pull into and park. We said f*ck it and decided to still take the pedestrian bridge after knowing we shouldn't have. Endijs made it over and before the rest of us could get close enough. This bald guy we are calling "Sue" and some kid ran out in front of us yelling, "NOOOO! Stop! Don't ride on that bridge". The rest of us turned around and they started running towards Endijs and chewed him out. Endijs is from Latvia so he played the foreign card a bit. We just laughed it off not thinking anything of it really.

A half hour or so later, I sat on a trailer by the pedestiran bridge for a bit trying to find a waterfall we could swim at that was close by. Sue walked up to me and asked if we had a problem. I said, "I don't." and I wasn't sure why he was so pissed off. He told me, "My guys have asked you repeatedly not to go on that bridge with your motorcycles. You guys are ripping in and out of here like crazy people!" My first thought was this guy is insane. I asked him, "How is going 5 mph over a bridge that you can fit 3 motorcycles wide crazy?" He started getting even more upset. "This is a family friendly establishment, a quiet campground and we don't need you guys ruining it and riding your motorcycles all crazy. There are kids playing around here and you could hit one or something. I don't have insurance for that." I laughed in his face and replied. "OHHHHH, you don't have insurance for this place. Are you kidding me with this riding crazy stuff? Every single one of us know exactly where we are going and would stop if there was an inkling of a person or child that would be in front of us. We aren't the crazy ones nor the loud ones. Those dudes from the bronx have been lighting off fireworks, playing loud music...." and before I could finish Chris Drew grabbed me and said, "Dude forget about it." My fists were clinched and I think he could tell I was getting more upset. Sue then goes, "You know, I could just kick all of you guys out of here right now if you want." I bit my lip, and wanted to say some really harsh stuff but I said to him, "No one is gonna ride across that dumb bridge again." and I walked away.

We got back on our bikes shortly after the verbal altercation with Sue and headed towards Shohola Falls. It was only 20 minutes away and seemed like a good ole' "rip to dip" was defiantly in order. Taking our time we rode on one of worst roads called ironically enough Shohola Falls Road. Filled with reverse speed bumps and potholes the size of craters, it made for some fun dodging and weaving. The falls themselves were set back in the woods a bit. You could actually hear them in the distance. We took a hike and had to climb down a few rock ledges to actually get into the water. The current was pretty strong, a bit cold but the day became warm, so it felt rather nice. I don't think I had ever have swam in orange water like that before. That was something completely new to me. We made jokes of swimming it toxic nuclear waste and how the whole weekend was filled with us being exposed to terrible chemicals. It felt nice though just to hang for awhile in the water and do something other than ride forever. The five of us were dudes just being dudes. I feel like we got to know each other a lot better there. We talked about life, our goals, our childhoods and whole bunch of other stuff. We shared stories and thoughts that you usually would never talk about at motorcycle events. It was nice.

We swam at the bottom of the falls for an hour or so and Chris Drew told us he wanted to try and swim at the top for a bit. So we hiked back up to the top to see if it was swimmable. It seemed a bit sketchy for most of our liking. Chris Drew kept his shoes on in the water and wasn't as scared as the rest of us. He walked out pretty far and laid at the tip of the falls for a bit. He acted like he was dead and just goofed off while we all laughed at him. When he walked back to us to say it was ok to go in and that it was safe, we noticed some black worm looking things attached all over his body. "DUDE! You have leaches all over you!!!" we all shouted. He started to freak out as we tried to brush them off. He started picking at his chest. It made for a good laugh and we started talking about leaches and ticks and other gross flesh eating bugs. I got scared and immediately, dropped trout and started searching everywhere on my naked body looking for leaches and ticks. They all started laughing. Thank god I didn't find any. Everyone laughed hysterically at the situation. One after another everyone started looking for leaches, ticks and other bugs. Analyzing the situation a little more now, those little black things on Chris Drew may have just been baby snails because there were a ton of huge snails at the bottom of the falls and it didn't look like they were sucking his blood. It was pretty funny at the time though.

Sometimes I need to remind myself to put down the camera. After we swam at Shohola Falls I saw my memory card was full so I just put my camera on my side and took the lead of the pack back to camp. I knew the way back because it was only a few turns to get there. Turning right on Shohola Falls Road I remembered how fun it was and I cracked opened the throttle full and took off. The switch backs were insane and a lot of up hills that went right into turns. I was jamming through there like a mad man. I must of been going 85 mph or more though some parts of it because Endijs tried to keep up with me on his GoPro but couldn't and it said he was doing 75 plus in some of the straight aways. I forget sometimes how fun it is just to ride my bike. I'm always hanging off it and taking photos and doing dumb shit, but actually riding it aggressive and fast is sometimes even more gratifying. We got back to camp and decided we would eat at Sue's restaurant instead of going back out.

All of us had a beer with our dinner except Chris Drew who's straight edge. He still parties though and got a virgin pina colada! Endijs and Timmy had a second one as we finished our mediocre meals. While we ate, I watched sue riding a 4 wheeler around the campground. He even rode it on the pedestrian bridge. It irritated the hell out of me even more. It was as if he almost was mocking us that dumb bald man baby hypocrite. After we paid the check, we walked back to our site. Who was Sue talking to when we walked passed? Oh just a the local Barryville pd, the police officer waived at us standing by his car, we just said hello and kept walking. Chris Drew looked directly at me and said, "If we leave here tonight, we are definitely getting pulled over ." I laughed it off in disbelief. I asked Lacour if he wanted to come get some beer with me at the gas station down the road because I didn't want to pay full bar prices all night and everyone chimed in, "Let's all go." Endijs almost didn't put a helmet on and we yelled at him that it was NY and they will get him for that easy. As we pulled out we noticed a kid from the campground running towards the office. I didn't think much of it at first. Chris Drew took off like a bat out of hell and I noticed he was burning rubber on his rear wheel from what looked like a bolt backing out. I caught up to him yelling, "Dude slow down your tire is rubbing." I'm so glad we slowed down because as we pulled into the gas station a half mile down the road. Who was sitting there waiting there? That same police officer that was at the campground. He pulled right up to us, I look around, the gas station is closed. "Gentleman, how we doing tonight and where are your front fenders?" Chris Drew replied, "I left mine at home..." I said the same thing though both of our bikes have no where to mount front fenders. We all kind of chuckled at each other a little. The cop then started to pick our bikes apart one by one on what was wrong with all of them. He seemed in a good mood and laughed with us a bit. He was in shock that Chris Drew's bike even had an inspection sticker from NY on it. Chris told him it passed with the bare minimum. While all this was going on, Endijs started to film the whole ordeal with his GoPro. He had it kind of low and hidden by his pant leg. As he got closer and closer to the cop, he realized he was being filmed and got extremely pissed off. He told us "Well blame your friend here for being dumb, I was going to let you all go but now I'm writing everyone of you tickets for everything you have wrong on each of these bike. Oh and I know you boys have been drinking tonight. I'm gonna give you breathalyzers too" My heart dropped. We just had a beer at dinner but I dont know the limit in NY. I started to sweat bullets a little. The cop's back up came and they ran my stuff, I was the only one that had all their paperwork on them. Everyone else just had their license. As the cops get done running everyones stuff, the main cop gets back out of his car and apologizes to us for losing his cool. "I'm old school guys, I don't like this social media shit." We told him, "We are old school too, we like old bikes, we were just trying to gas up for the morning and hit the road early, we aren't trying to cause anyone any trouble." He let us off with warning about the bikes, and just reminded us to not film cops. We turned around and headed back to camp all bummed by the situation. As we started to analyze everything we came to realization that f*cking Sue told the cop about our "Crazy" riding and how we were drinking at his bar and called him saying were were leaving and heading his way. That kid running to the office told Sue we were leaving. It all made sense. It was a set up from the start. I've never been stereotyped so bad in all my life as an "outlaw". I really feel that we were seen as such by not only Sue but other people in the town. I guess bad gas travels fast in a small town. It's safe to say we will be avoiding Barryville, NY the next Centralia run. We were the quietest group at that campground yet some how we were the bad guys. Just wild.

Day 4 - Homeward Bound - 06.09.19

We met back up with the ladies and had a ton of stories to share with them. They all laughed and Kat reiterated her point about when boys get together and the women aren't around that nothing good can come of it. The girls then shared their stories about their weekend and learned they had a great time just as much as we did. We left Landers around 11 am and headed back to Ohio. We made a pit stop in Corning to see our friend Alicia for a late lunch and said our goodbyes on the highway to Chris Drew and Timmy when the 86 and 390 split. The ride home wasn't crazy at all, just long and filled with 60 mile stops again.

The ride home took a little over 13 hours because of our longer than normal lunch stop. We ended up getting home shortly after midnight and we hit just a little rain in downtown Cleveland. Overall the weekend was a complete success. Everyone was safe at home. The weather was perfect all weekend long. No one's bikes broke down. We only had one accident that Craig survived and will bounce back from. We didn't go to jail. We all got to party. And most importantly we all got to ride motorcycles and experience new things with good friends that we cherish and love.

My beautiful wife Kat slaying the miles. Here's to the best birthday weekend ever babe! I love you.

Words and Photos by: Mikey Revolt