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I rode up to the Americade motorcycle rally in Lake George New York for the first two days of the week-long event. The folks from the local riders’ group that put this together go early in the week, before it gets too crowded and crazy.

Unlike Sturgis, Laconia, Daytona and other “bike” events, Americade is much less Harley-centric and geared more toward touring motorcycles and the folks who ride them, including many trikes, trailers, and sidecar rigs. But that does not mean that the event was biker-free.  There was no shortage of geniuses sporting straight-pipe bikes and riding down the street like a kid with baseball cards clothes-pinned to their spokes.  I have to admit feeling a delightful wave of Schadenfreude when one overly loud rider astride a Japanese Harley clone was followed into the motel parking lot by a cop who wrote him up for excessive noise.  Apparently excessive assholeness is not in itself a ticketable offense.

The heart of the event is a huge market / trade-show at which vendors of all stripes hawk their wares. If there is something that can be attached to a motorcycle, it was for sale there along with the ubiquitous Sham-Wow, magnetic bracelet, and beef jerky vendors that seem to be at every event, no matter the theme.  I was a bit disappointed that many of the vendors were selling at their regular retail prices instead of offering the expected show special, so there was no real point in buying products that I could get later on and not have to schlep home.

On the way back, Nurse N and I stopped in at the French Hollow Alpaca Farm in Cambridge NY where I learned: a) alpacas are among the sweetest, cutest things on earth, and b) I am alergic to alpacas.  We also enjoyed a coffee and a delicious muffin (probably hemp-based) at a twee coffee shop in downtown Cambridge that looked like a retirement home for Hobbits on the inside. It was run by the just-too-friendly members of a local commune.