At 83, flying high (Joys of Motorcycling)

The Intelligencer ^ | 6/26/06 | EDWARD LEVENSON

[martin_fierro]

At 83, flying high

By EDWARD LEVENSON The Intelligencer

On a sunny spring day, Dan Dolack of Hilltown rode his motorcycle to an overlook at Kinzua Bridge State Park in a remote area of northwestern Pennsylvania.

He was alone in the park, where tourists used to flock to a 2,000-foot-long railroad viaduct 300 feet above a wooded ravine, until most of the 121-year-old steel structure collapsed in a 2003 tornado.

“There were no people at the spot, no dogs, no noise at all. There was no sound of distant car engines. There were no aircraft in the sky, no birds, not even the sound of birds or cattle,” Dolack later wrote. “I experienced the most quiet, beautiful feeling I think I have ever felt ... I'm not an especially religious man, but I felt close to God and nature as I never had before.”

This was just one of the 83-year-old widower's memorable experiences during the 21/2 weeks he spent riding approximately 1,800 miles from one end of Pennsylvania to the other on his 2003 Harley-Davidson touring motorcycle.

Dolack, a retired corporate editor for Campbell Soup Co., had not ridden a motorcycle since World War II. A native of Dunmore, a suburb of Scranton, Dolack had traveled in the United States, Europe, South America and Africa during his lifetime, but had never seen Pennsylvania west of York.

Following the death of Catherine, his wife of 56 years, in 2004, Dolack decided he wanted to travel and resume writing. A graduate of Florida State University's school of journalism, he was a reporter at the Chester Times (now the Delaware County Times) and the Baltimore Sun in the 1940s.

When he said he wanted to buy a motorcycle and travel across Pennsylvania, his daughter, Mary Lynch, was horrified.

“I thought he would be killed,” she said.

Wearing a leather jacket, Dolack set off in mid-May on his journey. He used a sidecar to carry his clothing and equipment, but found that caused the cycle to become unstable when rounding curves.

“I almost killed myself three times,” said Dolack, who survived 30 combat missions in P-38 Lightnings and P-51 Mustangs over Europe as a member of the Army Air Corps during World War II.

Crossing southern and central Pennsylvania, Dolack stopped at the state Capitol, where he met Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll; Gettysburg National Military Park; the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg, Centre County; the Horseshoe Curve in Altoona; and the supposedly haunted U.S. Hotel in nearby Hollidaysburg. In Somerset County, Dolack rode to the top of Mount Davis, the state's highest peak at 3,213 feet, and visited the Flight 93 memorial to the heroes of Sept. 11.

In Chambersburg, he went up in a small plane and skydived with an instructor at 10,500 feet.

Because of his inexperience, he burned out the clutch on his motorcycle and was stuck for three days in Hopwood, a village outside Uniontown, while it was repaired. He took advantage of the hiatus to see the 60-foot-high Jumonville Cross, a local landmark atop a 2,500-foot-high mountain.

Dolack said he was glad he made his journey by motorcycle instead of by car.

“It wouldn't have been the same. You go along the back roads and people wave to you,” he said. Wherever he stopped, his motorcycle was a conversation piece. At one restaurant, the waitress offered to buy his leather jacket (he refused).

One of his goals was to reach the far corners of the state. He got lost on unmarked back roads trying to find the southwestern corner in Greene County. That wasn't the only time he couldn't find his way.

“I must have lost about 200 miles getting lost,” Dolack said. He had more success reaching the northwesternmost point on Lake Erie, and later, the northeastern corner at Matamoras on the Delaware River.

As he headed across the northern counties on U.S. Route 6, Dolack made a sentimental stop at Wyalusing Rocks overlooking the Susquehanna River. That's where his parents used to take him as a boy and where he went canoeing with his son, Chris.

Dolack said he never realized before how mountainous and sparsely populated the interior of Pennsylvania is.

“I was impressed by the friendliness of the people. There was nobody I met that was curt or surly. People were very nice,” he said.

Dolack kept a journal and took digital photographs. Using a computer, he is working on a book tentatively titled “Octogenarian Odyssey.”

“It would be interesting to people who are older. You shouldn't sit around and rot away,” he said.

Although Dolack is selling his motorcycle, he already is planning his next journey for 2008. He hopes to fly down the East Coast and possibly over to the West Coast in a “breezy,” a lightweight, open-cockpit plane.

[martin_fierro]

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[Lazamataz]

“There were no people at the spot, no dogs, no noise at all. There was no sound of distant car engines. There were no aircraft in the sky, no birds, not even the sound of birds or cattle,” Dolack later wrote.

At 83 years old, shouldn't he check his hearing aid battery?

[martin_fierro]

At 83, flying high (Joys of Motorcycling)

No, he didn't drive off the damn bridge.

[Lazamataz]

Coolest.

Rollercoaster.

EVER!

[mtbopfuyn]

“I must have lost about 200 miles getting lost,”

Men....

[Eastbound]

"People were very nice,” he said."

'Go north about 23 miles, turn left just after you pass the dead skunk smell, then turn right after you pass the tree that was stuck by lightning, and then look for the sign that says, "No Trespassing" and you'll be there. You won't get lost, trust me!'

'Thanks, ma'am.'

[JoeSixPack1]

Because of his inexperience, he burned out the clutch on his motorcycle and was stuck for three days in Hopwood, a village outside Uniontown, while it was repaired.

Great story! To add a little insight, a Harley clutch is housed in an adjustable cage which compliments the cable adjustment from the 'inner side' of the crank housing. With 89,000 miles on my factory original EVO clutch I'm just now considering adjusting the cage as it's slipping a little when I do 3rd gear wheelies, uphill. :-)

If he said the clutch cable broke, rider's young and old would identify with that prob.