Canandaigua New York

And I have no idea how to spell it, but the chick at Jos’e bar just typed it in for me, thanks. I guess this is the biker bar to be at and it’s hopping with a pretty good band kickin the kinda music ‘Us kind’ like to listen to. And as long as you might be asking what I mean by, ‘Us kind’ it’s the usual biker music with a little blues and hard rock.

To finish last night out, Corby’s was definitely the place to be and it got busy early. Fortunate for me I got there in time to get a good viewing spot and there was plenty of viewing to be had. Those Catholic girls know how to dress and I”m wondering it it’s the Notre Dame way not only for the women, but the guys too with their button up shirts and a proper white tshirt underneath. Anyway, the guys I was sitting next too kept talking me in to getting more beer and staying for the entertainment and it was very good viewing only problem I was one of the older ones in the joint.

Today’s travels started out wet once again and I don’t know what it is with me and where I’m starting out from because both yesterday and today started wet. I figured I’d wait to see if things cleared up and although it was a lighter mist than when I left yesterday from home, put the rain pants so I can at least get another days ride out of these jeans. They get so dirty on the road, at least the part that’s not covered and I should be able to get a three day ride out of one pair. Well, once again a few miles up the road and it was dry so there wouldn’t of been the need for the rain pants, but things still looked gloomy I figured I should keep them on, that was until I at least got closer to Cleveland. At that point it was pretty warm and no sign of rain that I might as well dress for my visit to the Rock and Roll hall of fame, the normal look of jeans, boots and a tshirt.

Today was also another day of hard riding the fast pavement and toll roads, even after Cleveland I decided to stay on the toll road than the other route along the river I’ve taken my last two visits to the area, which has me thinkin - this has been an every other year trip for me with my travels of the 49 states in 06, finishing North America in 08 and this year, the hope of extending my travels to South America...Stay tune and we’ll see what happens.

Back to today, I had to make a stop at the Rock and Roll hall of fame to see who was highlighted and it was another band, or at least artist from my years, Bruce Springsteen. Not a band worth me paying the cover charge to go thru the place and besides that, I’ve had my mind on Anchor bar in Buffalo all day and figured I have to make sure I get there for the original Buffalo wings. I did catch a quick Polish dog at one of the street stands in Cleveland it was time to high tail it to Buffalo and besides that, I lost an hour somewhere along the way.

I did make it to the Anchor bar for the wings and before I get to the wings and finding a place to stay, had an interesting talk with a guy in town for the Dark Star Orchestra concert and if you’re wondering what kind of band that is, this guy looked like a Grateful Dead dead head to give you a hint and he had even made the trip to Minneapolis just to see the band. His only trip to Minnesota because he didn’t have any other need to visit. Pretty cool guy to talk to and it’s very true, you cannot always judge a book by it’s ocver, hell, look at me, you’d never guess I’m just a wanna be biker...that’s according to some of my friends who I have to ask, what is it gonna take to prove to you that there’s no more wanna be, but am.

Ok, while I’m wording on this story sitting in Jose’s the way the bartenders deal with the money sitting on the bar if far different than what I experienced last night with the good looking young blonde waitress that I had to set straight on the money sitting on the bar. Not realizing all the beers I was having last night were 6 bucks, I ordered a different kind of beer and put 8 bucks on the table figuring she’d take what was needed for the beer and leave the rest on the bar, well instead she put the 6 bills into the cash register and the other 2 in the tip jar. I asked her what she would have done had I left a 20 on the bar and she said she would have given me change of 14 bucks without a tip to which I told her how we do it back home, that is back in Wisconsin where you leave the money on the bar, the bartender takes the money for the cost of the drinks and at the end of the night you’ll leave them a tip if you hadn’t tipped them per drink earlier. Anyway, these bartenders, even the new girl tonight knows how that works, only take the cost of the drink out of the money.

As I digress, back to Anchor bar and of course the wings are as good as ever, and instead of root beer, remember, this place only serves birch beer, which of course I had to have. I did ask the bartender if there were any cheap places in town to find place to sleep for the night, including a shelter down by the lake, but the only thing she thought of was a travel lodge up the road. Well, I did talk to the guys in back, the ones that help me park my bike and the cooks what they thought of sleeping under the shelter down by the lake and they said not a good idea in Buffalo, not a very safe place to be just laying out that I’m either better off heading to Niagara Falls or finding a hotel. Well, the Travel Lodge was a dive and the guy was asking for 60 buck cash for the night that it wasn’t worth it for this place, even if it was close to the Anchor. Well, you can guess what I did, hit the road and headed East and now how I ended up in Canandaigua? well, I got off the toll road one exit before because it’s getting late, remember that hour that I lost and as long as it was pushing 9:00, the deer are on the run that I sure the hell don’t need to hit one that it’s time to find a place to stay. I can tell you, it’s even harder finding a place in the dark because I only saw one hotel at the last stop and it wasn’t a cheap one, that I got back on the toll road and headed to the next exit to find something cheaper which put me at the Americinn and good directions to the biker bar in town, 8 miles up the road to Jose’s. Time to party!