Wednesday, 7/31 - I just want to go HOME!

What I failed to mention was that while we were out yesterday, the owner of the cabin laid down some new loose shale over half of the parking area in front of the cabin.  Motorcycles and loose shale get along like… well, they don’t!  I am sure he was trying to be helpful (I know, call me a Pollyanna, call me naïve or an just idiot), but that shale was SO not helpful!

As beautiful as the area was, we just wanted to get off of that gravel road.   But the morning greeted us with a beautiful sunrise and deer just outside!  So we had to take time to smell the roses and take some pictures. 

We left a bit after seven without breakfast – just GO!  My Garmin was talking, this time, so we were able to navigate the roads fairly easily.  My friend Kate says it takes about three and a half hours to get back home.  We got home about five and a half hours later.  Granted we make stops for gas, to stretch, and at the first Cracker Barrel we could find, but that didn’t take two hours.  We finally figured out why the Garmin was taking us on the scenic motorcycle roads, and not on the direct-route-roads.  I programed our trip on the Harley website’s “trip planner”.  Vaughn decided that it must be programmed for the scenic routes – after all, isn’t that why you ride in the first place???

So now we are home, laundry is being done, and we're taken long overdue showers.  Now it's time to sit back, have a glass of wine and enjoy all of our aches, pains, and pictures!

Tuesday, 7/30 - Mary and Vaughn and the horrible, no good, very bad afternoon!

Getting up early for the sunrise didn't pay off when a huge fog covered the valley.  So much so that we couldn't even see the nearest house just down the hill.  In the time it took the fog to clear, I found a restaurant for breakfast that had really good reviews on Tripadvisor. 

So, through our headsets, Vaughn talked me down the driveway and pot-holed road to the main road.  Did I mention that there is a mile and a half gravel road up to the cabin?   The road goes practically straight uphill with a 115 degree turn to the right near the top.   Complete with a rut running right across the middle of the turn.  Vaughn drove down the driveway first and talked me through how to get down the hill, not fall into the rut, and pull out from the gravel onto the pot-holed road.  SUCCESS!  And we were on our way into town for breakfast. 

We found the restaurant.  No problem.  It really is a tiny town.  The problem was finding parking that wasn't on a bed of gravel, but we found a parking lot across the street and walked to the restaurant.  "Closed Tuesday and Wednesday" read the sign in the window.  Bummer!  We wandered down the street and found another restaurant, but they didn't serve breakfast.  The owner did give us a recommendation for another restaurant and off we went.

Our plan for the day was to drive and hike through Blackwater Falls Park.  The roads were lush with greenery.  At one stop we followed some trails down to the river.  Vaughn found some deer tracks on the trail and determined that they were fresh.   So walking as silently as possible we were able to sneak up on the two deer as they crossed the river.  They didn’t hear us and Vaughn was able to get some pictures of them before they disappeared into the woods on the other side.

The next stop warned us that there were 214 steps down to see the falls.  No problem!!  The problem was the 214 steps going back up to the bikes!  But the trip was worth it as the falls were breath-taking!

As our legs were a bit weary, we headed back to the cabin – up and down the curvy roads to the pot-holed road to the gravel road to the cabin.  As we reached the turn at the top of the gravel road, Vaughn’s front tire caught the rut.  In his efforts to maneuver out of the rut, I watched his bike skid backwards and fall over to the right.  (Vaughn is FINE!!).  I knew I couldn’t stop there to help him, but had slowed my bike down too much.  My bike’s first gear didn’t like loose gravel and my bike went over to the left (I am FINE!).  Vaughn’s bike was on a downhill incline and it took several attempts for us to get it back up.  A truck coming down the hill stopped and a man and young boy helped me right my bike.  Shaken, we both made it back to the cabin on our bikes.

We are both fine – save some rattled nerves, a few bruises and sore muscles.  Our evening ended with five deer just outside the cabin, a brilliant sunset (that we nearly missed for watching the deer), and a nighttime sky scattered with millions of twinkling stars.

Monday, 7/29 - Now for a day of relaxing!!

We got up early on Monday to enjoy the sunrise, head out to breakfast and meet up with Kate and Katie to go hiking at Dolly Sods (yes, that really is the name and it is supposed to be a beautiful place to hike!). We were watching two deer in the field down the hill when they suddenly bolted out of sight. And then we saw it - the tow truck that was coming to pick up my bike. Yes, the one that refused to start this morning. Needless to say, that completely nixed our plans for hiking.

The nearest Harley dealer was 75 (or 85, depending who you asked) miles away. So my bike was loaded on the tow truck and Vaughn followed closely behind. The tow truck driver (Wilson) had directions from both of us not to lose Vaughn. And Wilson did a magnificent job - of transporting my bike up and down mountains, checking it when the pavement changed (gravel to pot-holed road, pot-holed road to interstate) and stopping to give Vaughn directions when we entered the "town" about where he would be turning in case we got separated. The good news is we never got separated. The other good news is that it was just the battery, which the dealership was able to replace. So after waiting about two hours we were able to return back to the cabin.


Gotta love Garmin for finding the "direct" route home. But at least we got to see some amazing "motorcycle" roads. I would tend to call them the "scenic" route.

When we stopped for dinner, I immediately apologized for our attire - the vented pants and jackets with armor that we wear when riding. The owner of the restaurant asked if we'd had a good day of riding. Not quite! After telling him where we had been, he knew exactly who we were. His buddy is the guy who owns the place we are renting - word travels fast in a small town! We were quite glad to get back to the cabin to enjoy the evening's sunset.
 

Sunday, 7/28 - So much for that theory!

It rained Saturday night, but by Sunday morning the rain had stopped and the ground was simply wet. Since there was still a "chance" of rain, we put on our gators and rain pants - surely this would be all that we would need to convince Mother Nature that it didn't need to rain on our parade! We said goodbye to Grace and Ken and by 7:30 were on our way to Canaan Valley, West Virginia. Not five minutes away from their house, it began to rain. And the rain stayed with us for about an hour. The good news is that we survived!

I must admit, we really did see some magnificent scenery on our journey from Pennsylvania to West Virginia.  A couple of rest stops along the way, another stop on the side of the road to switch headsets with Vaughn since my headset stopped working and I couldn't hear the Garmin, and a stop to get "groceries" at Walmart and we were on our way to the cabin.



The owners of the cabin clearly said DON'T FOLLOW YOUR GPS SYSTEM. And I knew I was going to be turning onto a gravel road. Not following their directions, I turned where the Garmin said turn - wrong gravel road. Try it again. I turned where the Garmin said turn - wrong gravel road again! This time Vaughn took lead and found the road we were supposed to turn on - clearly marked with the name of the road. Of course!

The cabin was adorable with great views from every side.  So quaint and cute!  If it weren't for this whole needing to work thing, I think I could quite happily wake up to these views each morning.


The plan was to have dinner with our friends, Kate and Katie. But we were exhausted after riding all day. They kindly came to pick us up. Dinner was great! Kate is an amazing cook! We had a wonderful time. They drove us back to the cabin with the plan to catch up tomorrow to go hiking.

Saturday, 7/27 - Playing catch up

Grace and Ken were the best hostess and host! They thought of all kinds of options of things we could do while we were there. We started the breakfast at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord. Although they said the prices had gone up, we found them to be quite reasonable - compared to the you-live-near-DC prices we pay for meals. The buffet had about everything you can imagine. Some of the food I haven't had since I was a kid, and now that I know enough abut what is in it, refuse to eat as an adult - scrapple. However, there are members of my family who do enjoy it, so this pic's for you.

After that we went to the Daniel Boone homestead, a fascinating place to visit with some great photo opps. According to the informational video, Daniel Boone left the Birdsboro area because he wanted more "elbow room". Given the size of the property NOW and understanding it was much larger THEN, I can't imagine, how much more elbow room he could have needed.

The day ended sitting on their front porch listening to the sounds of the great outdoors, talking, and

laughing.   Laughing is a great way to spend an evening and there was plenty of it!  Their cats, Miss Maudie and Dill (did I mention that they are both retired English teachers?) kept us company. The only thing that disturbed our evening was the four cars (yes, we counted - 4!) that drove down the road in front of their house.  It was the quietest road we'd ever been one!
    

Friday, 7/26 - Oh, puck it!

The first stop on yesterday’s trip began with a stop at the Exton Harley Davidson store.  I forgot to pack my “hockey puck”.  For those of you who don’t know, this is a round plastic disk that is placed under the kickstand when you park on asphalt in very high temperatures.  We have also found it to be helpful when parking on gravel.  ­Mission accomplished, so now this is stored within easy access on my bike.

It was short trip to get the Grace and Ken’s.  Their home is on a beautiful wooded lot, but the driveway is almost a complete 90-degree turn straight up hill. Grace and Vaughn were high school classmates.  We visited them on our first trip and they were kind enough to invite us to spend a few days with them.  

 

After relaxing outside next to their beautiful pool, we went to visit the Reading Pagoda.  Given the incline of the drive and the hairpin turns to get there, I was grateful that Ken drove and that we didn’t have to ride our bikes!

The evening’s entertainment was a riot.  We went into the “game room” to play on vintage arcade games and a bowling game.  After that was a game of pool.  In spite Grace’s claim that she didn’t play pool, she and Ken easily beat us.

Thursday 7/25 - And we're off!

I will apologize in advance because I am running a day behind.

OK, so we got started a little bit later than we planned to yesterday. Who knew that after not being used for two years our Garmin would lose it's connection to my Bluetooth headset?  So we grabbed the manual for the headsets, connected the Garmin and left 20 minutes late.

The first stop was at Hearne Hardwoods, in Oxford, PA. If you ever want to see a REAL lumber yard with AMAZING wood, you have to go here.  It was HUGE - barns stacked with lumber (all carefully labelled).  We were both in awe of the size of the place.  And the equipment was mammoth, too.  These pictures will put the size into perspective.

The next stop was at Cumberland Cemetery to visit Mom and Dad.  It had been a while since we'd been up.  We were glad to see that the family plot continues to be well maintained. 

This day's journey ended with a visit with Neha and Shantanu.   Neha made us some wonderful Indian tea.  I definitely need the recipe for this one.  They are expecting their first child in a few weeks.  They are a lovely couple with whom we enjoy spending time.

Oh, along the way we did pass three Harley dealerships.  We stopped at the first one to buy gators (no, not the kind Brint plays with!).  These are rain "boots" designed to cover the top of our boots when its raining.  Although we have our rain suits with us - the pants don't prevent water from seeping into the boot through  the laces.  In MY mind, buying these will be like bringing an umbrella when you think it is going to rain - that is to say, because we are prepared for rain, it won't!  Although right now the weather forecast isn't looking like it's supporting my theory too much...

Lesson learned - pay attention to where you book your reservations!  It was impossible to check into the Hampton Inn ... because I made my reservations with the Fairfield Inn across the street.

It’s the 3rd annual…

OK, so we missed a year last year, but we are at it again – our 3^rd Annual Motorcycle Extravaganza!  This trip will be shorter in distance than the others, but this simply gives us more time to relax.  This will be the Friendship Tour as we will be visiting with friends at each stop along the way.

We start out tomorrow.  Since we won’t have to leave before the sun comes up this time, this will give us time to figure out – how exactly do we get all of this luggage on those bikes??  And due to weather and schedules (oh yeah, and finishing the renovation of the bathroom!!), we haven’t had much time for riding.  So this is going to be what we call an ADVENTURE!