TravellingStrom

Thursday – Lewisburg, Pennslyvania

Another 4 state day today

As Michael did not plan on being out overnight, but always carried a minimum set of gear anyway, there was not much else to do but ride 🙂 So, we got an early start and left about 8am ish and headed for the Skyline Drive, this is in a national park, but my annual pass got me through easy as.

This road has a speed limit of 35mph, which I think is a bit slow, but the ranger at the park entrance said it is because of the amount of animals that are there, Michael said, that every other road around the joint has the same amount of animals but has a 55mph limit, so it is not consistent. Not to worry, I was enjoying the views and watching for bear!

Michael let me lead the way, so if I wanted to stop for photos, I could.

Of course when I slammed on the anchors for a photo shoot, he overran me. In the time it took for me to stop and get the camera out and in the right mode, the mother/father and two of the baby wild turkeys had hopped up off the road and over the wall, only a few bubs left, but at least I got something.

They are on the wall, but were on the grass by the road when I stopped. We continued on with Michael following a bit further back from now on though. 🙂 The clouds were getting closer, sometimes we were above them, which makes them fog, sometimes above us which makes them clouds!

A bit of info for ya all

We were only at 2400 ft elevation, but we were soon amongst the clouds, or fog, the point of view is your own choice.

Sometimes we broke into free air and I stopped for a decko. The roads were nice, but at this speed very boring, apparently the knee scrapers have the cops on their toes out this way, so stick to the limit is the rule. Mind you, having seen a few deer on the side of the road, boring is safe 🙂 There are also lots of squirrels on the road and I don’t want to squish any of those either.

There is a place called Big Meadows, which is actually a big meadow 🙂 When we stopped at another lookout, some RV’ers checked out Michaels bike. He has all these stickers on it from overseas travel, he rides overseas every year and collects them, he will be going over in a few weeks to the Alps in Europe, good on him 🙂

We continued on with a tiny bit of sunshine, but by now it was mostly cloud, which made the road a tad difficult to see occasionally!

A bit more sunshine but not enough to warm up, I had already donned a layer to keep warm.

After a bit more sun and then no sun but only the inside of clouds, we got to the end of the ride. It took us a bit less time than expected, but when we passed every look out place and saw the inside of clouds, there was no point stopping. So, at 11.30 am we parted company, Michael was heading home to Sterling, I was heading north to grab a few states, also I wanted to look for a tent. See ya later and thanks for everything Michael, ride safe and rubber side down 🙂

Of course this meant I was back amongst civilisation, which means traffic, but at least I managed to find the correct signs for my needs and do a U-turn for the reverse 🙂

I headed for a place called Hagerstown, this is where an outdoor store was located, it was a bit out of the way, hence the reason I picked up an extra state, but they had some quaint old houses there when I arrived.

Well, what a bonus, after a look around I actually found the exact tent I mentioned yesterday, the Hooligan3, they had a stack of them on the shelf, so the internet notice about ‘out of stock’ must have meant head office/dispatch. 🙂 I bought one, plus some seam sealer and also paid an extra $9 for extended warranty; they will replace it if I fall over and break it 🙂

After that, a short detour through the silo filled countryside saw me snaffle a few more states 🙂

They have some fine old buildings here in this state.

Guess what?

Yep, it rained again, but I was prepared this time and already had stopped to don the gear. I was now interested in getting some distance up my sleeve so I hit the interstate slab and headed north. I had as my goal, Niagara Falls and then Toronto, not today, but very soon, so I might as well go for it. It was a fast boring ride, lucky I found this parking spot, I was busting by this stage. It had stopped raining, but I left the gear on just in case.

I had heard that up here there were arseholes on the road, but to see the signs as a constant reminder made me be very wary of everything around me, not a nice feeling at all, especially when cold and tired!

I eventually found a motel at a town called Lewisburg, this had taken me a long way through the state of Pennsylvania and ready for a run north to Canada. It was a cold bleary evening and I needed rest. By the time I had settled in and had some tucker, it was gone 9pm, so I did bugger all except answer emails and go though some photos etc. It rained hard and heavy most of the evening, so it did not look good for the morning run north. It was a good day though, the ride was fun if a bit slow at times, in fact the last 3 days has been a great ride, the best way to head north I reckon.

Day – 338 miles and 544 km
Trip – 18,069 miles and 29,079 km

Cheers
TravellingStrom

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