I passed Albany in the rain, and headed down I-88. I didn't want to take I-90, the tolls are too high, I was going to take 17 for free, and almost as fast.
I rode into the sunset, or at least what was appearent of it through the clouds: a brighter area of the darkening sky, and finally, night fell.

At about 8:45pm I decided to stop for food and a dry spot. I found a Pizza Hut, and ate some warm pizza and 3 cups of hot coffee, while my rain gear (uselessly) dried up. I was on I-88, about 100 miles from route 17.

When I left was when the real battle started. The opponents where many and cunning, but I fought them:
Rain: not to hard, just slow down in turns, wear good rain gear.
Darkness: Harder on a bike, at least in the rain, but the divider in the road had reflection pads, so I could see well beyond my limited range of vision where the road turned.
Creamy Fog: Oh come on... that's just not fair. All I can see is white. The only thing to do was to ride at a crawl. Luckily the fog was sporatic.

It was about this time that the reflection pads in the road ended, and I hit route 17. Between the rain, the darkness and the fog, I could barely see the road. It was time to stop.

Overpriced Motels and Morning Riding

I stopped at the first motel I found. I'm sure if I looked longer I could have found a cheaper one, but I was sick of not seeing where I was going, so I stopped anyway. I'll be sure to stop before I can't drive next time, so I can price shop...

The room was fine, there was a pool, unsuable due to the rain.I called Ms. Allisun to tell her I wouldn't be there till the next day, and watched the first half of The Terminator before going to sleep.

When I got up I was dissapointed. Let's just say that crappy toast with crappy jelly, chased with sock coffee does not a continental breakfast make.

I left at 9:30am and headed west on 17. It wasn't raining yet, but I could tell it would. At least it was brigh out. Well, not bright enough to wear my sunglasses, but brighter than night.

It drizzled almost constantly after that, with occational pauses and an occational downpour. Here is one of the only pictures I dared to take when it looked like the rain would let out long enough:

It is along 17, not too far from Jamestown (which, for those of you who've seen the Firefly TV series keeps reminding me of a particular episode).

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania was dark, rainy and windy. Luckily it didn't last long that far north. Nothing of note.

Ohio, the promised land

Well, as soon as I hit the Ohio border, the rain let off. And for the first time in what seemed like forever, I actually saw the sun peek it's face through the clouds.

It hasn't rained since then, but the sun went back into hiding.

About 50 miles out of Cleveland, I called Ms. Allisun to tell her I was near, and we made plans to meetup. I had a little time to kill, so I stopped out of Cleveland and took the pictures of my bike (on the bike info page) as well as this picture of cleveland:

While I'm at it, I'll repost the pics of my bike, cause I took them today: About 30 minutes after I took these, I was unloading my gear into Ms. Allisun's livingroom.

Itinerary

MA: I-91 -> I-90 -> NY
NY: I-90 -> I-88 -> 17 -> I86/17-> PA
PA: I-86 -> I-90 -> OH
OH: I-90 -> Cleveland.