Breezewood, Pa.

Gold is the prevalent colour in the Southern Tier this year.

Today I began what I am calling the “Big Geek Adventure 2009”. I left The Manor around 3:00 p.m. with a Jeep full of goodies: a few days worth of clothes, a lovely lunch pail packed by a thoughtful husbear, a duffle bag or two of geek stuff and toys and most of all, my cycling gear.

I am on vacation this week. Earl is not able to take all of this week off along with me, so with his blessing I am on a multi-day roadtrip. Some people don’t understand how I can go on vacation without Earl. I’m not vacationing to get away from Earl by any means. He knows that I like exploring by driving endless hours on miles and miles of road, wandering aimlessly here and there and he enjoys helping me indulge in this, hence my ride this week.

I was going to try to wander today by sticking to two-lane roads but after taking nearly 2.25 hours to drive 80 miles I was losing my mind, so I decided to change my route a bit and take scenic freeways. Believe it or not, we have scenic freeways in these parts. Once the weekend is over and such, the Sunday drivers should be back at home lapping up spoonfuls of Sominex and leaving the roads fairly clear, so I’ll start the two-lane road thing again in a day or two.

I have a destination planned for tomorrow; I am meeting up with our friend Thom in Northern Virginia for a bike ride, hence the bike in the back of the Jeep. Thom and I have talked about riding together for a number of years and haven’t been able to make it happen, so this is a good chance to see him again and to finally go on that bike ride. I’m looking forward to seeing him.

My first change in course was to turn west at Binghamton along NY Route 17, which is Future Interstate 86 (at least where I was). Here Route 17 follows along the Susquehanna River for a bit, and one of the rest areas are conveniently situated on the banks.

After a bite to eat from the aforementioned lunch pail, I headed west to Corning and then turned south along US Route 15, which is Future Interstate 99 in these parts. We apparently have a bright future ahead of us. Along Route 15 I quickly left the Empire State behind and ended up in the Keystone State, where I headed straight south through Central Pennsylvania. Tonight I am spending the night in Breezewood, Pa., known as the place where you have to exit Interstate 70 to get onto Interstate 70 after driving by a bunch of motorist friendly establishments.

By the way, I have been here before. The room is configured the same but the curtains are different this time around.

Tomorrow morning I intend on continuing the trip to Thom’s in Virginia. My Twitter (see right hand column) will be kept up to date and I am on a geek experiment during this trip: I have only a Windows 7 computer to use for my tech needs. I will be writing a review of my Windows 7 experience in a couple of days on my geek blog.

Now, to get some sleep.

Update (10/12/2009 00:20) — I’ve started my Windows 7 experience on my ‘geekdom blog’, which is now called ‘From Mac To 7’. You can see it here.