Our Motorcycle Trip 2016 started in Danbury, CT. The itinerary will take us as follows:
Exton, PA for our granddaughter’s high school graduation (202 mi.)
Wheeling, WV for an overnight (352 mi.)
New Albany, OH to visit some friends
Dublin, OH for a Sat-Mon board meeting at OCLC
Wytheville, VA for an overnight
Palm Coast, FL to our home. Might need an extra overnight. TBD.
Total estimated trip: 1,500 miles.
The first day from CT heading south is always difficult. I never enjoy the George Washington Bridge or the New Jersey Turnpike. Once on the Pennsylvanias Turnpike, I knew we would run into thunderstorms. The NOAA Radar app showed them clear as a bell. It was just a matter of how far we could get toward our destination. The sky ahead was dark and the high winds made steering more difficult. Once the downpour began, we were lucky to find a nice overpass to stay under until the storm passed. It was a bit more than an hour. Then onto graduation. The three lovely ladies in the picture are three generations I am proud of.
Day 2 started out very chilly. The sky was blue, but winds were strong. It was a tough 352 miles due west navigating through a lot of construction and the high winds. Politicians like to say our infrastructure is crumbling, but I can say, at least in Pennsylvania, there was a very large number of workers and construction equipment adding lanes and repairing bridges. Pennsylvania has a large number of dairy farms. The aroma in the air is distinctive. We could not resist taking a 20 mile detour to visit the Flight 93 Memorial. Although emotional, the $70 million National Park is extremely well constructed and quite impressive. The crash site was just to the right of the large boulder in the big field.
On to Wheeling, West Virginia. My mother was born in the state and I wish she could have been along. Ye Olde Alpha was quite a place for dinner. The bar was one of the largest I have seen in the world and certainly had the most antlers. The food was good. We skipped their specialty which is “French fries, covered with cheese, bacon, and a few other things, and then broiled into a gooey platter”. Day 3 will take us to Ohio. I will keep the Facebook album up to date with pictures.
