At 9:30 AM, when we left Pipestem, West Virginia, it was 43 degrees and cloudy. It wasn’t raining, but since the ground was still wet, Hubby recommended that we don the rain gear.
I’m glad I have such a smart Hubby. Because it wasn’t long at all before we were getting rained on. The rain didn’t last long, but the roads were pretty much wet all day. It was cold, too.
I have pictures to share, but I can’t upload them for some reason. I decided to do a post anyway so y’all know we’ve arrived.
We’re in Middlesboro, Kentucky, which is just outside of the Cumberland Gap National Park.
Tomorrow we’re going someplace very cool, but very rustic. They do not have Internet access. In fact, I don’t even think they have TV.
So you won’t hear from us again until Thursday when we’re at Natural Bridge State Park.
Today is Hubby’s birthday.
All loaded-up and ready to go.
I wish I could say there’s a fabulous day of riding ahead of us. I mean we ARE in one of the most beautiful parts of West Virginia. And we DID ride in on a fabulous road.
Unfortunately, it’s 48 degrees and cloudy. And there’s a 60% chance of rain.
Considering the fact that we rode about 6 hours in the cold rain yesterday (scattered showers), neither of us are real anxious to mount-up again today.
I’ll write more later. It’s time to go get breakfast!
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The Ride – Day 1
We left the WV place around 9:30 on Sunday. That’s relatively early in the day, so we had high hopes that the temperature, which was hovering around 60, would get warmer and the clouds would go away.
With our leather on, we were warm enough. Unfortunately, though, the clouds did not go away. Instead, they thickened and condensed. The next thing you know, we were stopped beside the road near Thomas, WV (very close to Blackwater Falls State Park) pulling on our rain gear. Truth be told, I was happy to be wearing an extra layer. As it turns out, 60 degrees was to be the warmest temperature we experienced all day.
It didn’t rain continuously, but it did rain a lot. The roads were wet pretty much all day. And that’s a real shame. Because just south of Buckhannon, we got on WV-20, which is one of the best roads we’ve ever ridden. Very little time was spent in an upright position. There was curve after curve after curve as we went up and back down numerous mountains.
It was easy to tell when we neared the top of a mountain. That’s when the fog got REALLY thick. I’m sure we missed some spectacular scenery. What little we could’ve seen was missed because we had to remain 100 percent focused on the road. Riding a motorcycle, which takes a good bit of concentration on a clear day, becomes a bit more challenging in the rain.
Wanna know what it’s like? Picture yourself going about 50 mph in your car during one of those niggling, misty rains. Your windows are down, of course. And you don’t have any windshield wipers. Oh yeah, and we can’t forget the cold.
Except for our hands (neither of us have weatherproof gloves), we were dry. But it was quite chilly. It’s hard to relax and enjoy riding when you’re stiff with cold. But we made the best of it. And we actually lasted five and a half hours before stopping to thaw out.
We were very happy when we did stop. It was nice to get warm and eat.
Shortly after lunch, we rode through a town with a bank that had a digital thermometer built into its sign. I was amazed to see that it read 40 degrees. Yes, 40. No wonder we felt cold!
Lucky for us, the place we’re staying is warm. There’s even a fireplace in the lobby. It was really nice to get here and warm up.
We’re in far southern West Virginia at Pipestem Resort State Park. If you follow that link, you’ll see they have a web cam, which means you’ll be able to see for yourself just how dreary the day looks. As long as it doesn’t rain, we’ll be happy. There’s lots here to see.
Maybe I’ll even have some pics to share with you tomorrow.
Those of you who read my blog because you love reading about our motorcycle adventures will be happy to know we’ve got a great ride lined up. And it is FAST approaching.
Motorcycle traveling is unlike regular travel. With regular travel, be it by car, bus, train, plane or camel, one typically identifies some cool places to visit and then finds the fastest, most-convenient way to get there. Two-wheeled travel is often more about the ride than the destination. We hardly ever take the most-direct route. We pretty much always prefer rural routes over interstate highways. Especially if said rural routes wind through the mountains.
Why Kentucky?
Well, Hell. Why not? According to Wikipedia, Kentucky is “home to the highest per capita number of deer and turkey in the United States, the largest free-ranging elk herd east of Montana, AND the nation’s most productive coalfield.” Plus, it’s known for thoroughbred horses, horse racing, bourbon distilleries, bluegrass music, automobile manufacturing, tobacco and college basketball.
Need I say more?
Okay, how about this for a really compelling reason.
I chose Kentucky because it’s a state I haven’t been to. Plus, it’s the heart of Appalachia. And we’ll get to see the real Cumberland Gap. Real as opposed to Cumberland, Maryland, which I used to think of as the Cumberland Gap, but which is really the Cumberland Narrows.
As if those aren’t enough reasons, there’s also this… I’ve been wanting to explore southern West Virginia a bit more. We’ve ridden through before. But this time we’ll be spending a little more time poking around.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time plotting a route that should have us traversing a lot of roads that look like this…
Our kind of road!
Roads like that are what make this so much fun.
HubbyToadMama
We’ll get to add another national park to our list of places visited. AND a cool Kentucky state park. We’ll be doing some other fun stuff, too. But I can’t give it all away here.
There’s one place I’m hoping will really tickle Hubby. I’m the trip planner, remember? I don’t always share the details in advance. Usually because he doesn’t really want to know.
We will definitely see a lot of mountains.
I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures to share here, okay? I may even be able to do some posts from the road.
For now, though, I have a ton of WORK to get done. So, TTFN!
“Hawk Mountain Sanctuary is one of the best places in the northeastern United States to watch the annual hawk migration, one of nature’s greatest wildlife spectacles. Between August 15 and December 15, an average 20,000 hawks, eagles and falcons pass the Sanctuary’s North Lookout and are identified and counted.”
It would have been cool to see a bunch of migrating raptors. But I happen to live in a part of the country where many hawks over-winter. So we get to see them quite frequently. And if they aren’t hanging around all Winter, they are sure enough passing through in large numbers as they head south and then return north in the Spring.
Ugly road. Cool diner. I think this was somewhere between Reading and Hamburg.
But this post isn’t about birds. It’s about my road trip. Actually, it’s about sharing pictures I took during the trip. The cow shots I shared yesterday are just the tip of the iceberg.
A co-worker’s recent excursion reminded me of the place. She visited recently and had some pretty nice pictures to share. So I decided a road trip was in order.
I thoroughly enjoyed the drive, but I must admit it would have been sooooo much more awesome on the motorcycle.
My favorite stretch of road was PA-10 from Oxford to just north of Honey Brook. I’ll definitely have to head back that way one day. I hit a bit of turnpike-type highway from there to Reading. Then I was on Hwy 61 for a while. That was all interesting, but not nearly as scenic as PA-10 through farm country.
Soon enough I was turning onto Hawk Mountain Road. That’s when I spotted this cool, dilapidated barn.
This old farm looked like a castle ruin.
After a quick drive up my favorite type of mountain road — narrow, winding, and flanked by trees in varying degrees of color change — and a short but strenuous hike, I reached the top of Hawk Mountain.
The view from the top of Hawk Mountain.
It was a nice view. But getting to the top? Oh my God. It’s a good thing I am very sure-footed, that’s all I can say. Here are a couple of pictures of the trail. And this is the easier one.
The trail to the North Overlook.
The trail goes right through the middle of the next image. For real. That’s why there’s an orange blaze on the tree.
The trail. Really.
And when I got to the top, what did I find?
People. Ugh.
A whole bunch of bird watchers. The guys wearing tan are the ranger-types and spotters who are there to educate folks and count the birds. One day last week, 1,400+ broad-winged hawks flew past. Not all at once, but still.
In addition to the bird watchers, there were also lots and lots of stink bugs. I am sick to death of those darn things.
I did not hang around long, but I did get some nice pictures. I’ll post a few of my favorites here…
My favorite scenery capture.Nice view. You gotta love those red maple leaves.
Yesterday was a picture-perfect day for motorcycling. And we were thrilled to be able to take advantage of it.
We left the house around 11:00 and rode just over 190 miles from our WV place north through Maryland and into Pennsylvania. Then we headed west into West Virginia and south, skirting the far western edge of Maryland. We stopped briefly in Rowlesburg, West Virginia before heading east again into Maryland and then back into West Virginia.
Confused? This map should make it easier, depending who you are. Map-reading is one of those skills technology (GPS) seems to be making obsolete.
Today's ride map.
I love maps. Planning our rides is fun for me. Once I have the ride all mapped out, I write the route on a piece of paper and stick it in my tank bag, which has a special, see-through spot for that exact purpose.
It really was a great ride. Temperatures in the mountains were near-perfect. There were some repeat roads, but there were a few new ones, too. Some of the roads were a bit rough, but the scenery was so pretty, it was worth it. At one point, I was 95% sure I’d turned onto the wrong road and gotten us lost. But the road we were on was so pretty, I just didn’t care. One is never REALLY lost as long as one has a map.
I’ll show you a few pics from the ride shortly. But first, look what I saw in our backyard right before we left.
Mama and her baby just a few feet from the back patio.
Yes, I’ve seen plenty of deer before. But I have never, since January 2005, seen them this close to our house. It was cool seeing them that close, but it wasn’t the high point this post’s title refers to.
In Rowlesburg, West Virginia.
We got to Rowlesburg via CR-51 Salt Lick Road from Terra Alta. We’d been to Rowlesburg before, but had never arrived by this route. CR-51 is a pretty narrow, winding road. It may not be the quickest or most picturesque way to get from point A to point B, but it’s fun putting along roads like this seeing how folks live. The picturesque route would have been to take SR-7 west from Terra Alta then SR-72 south at Kingwood. This route, which we’ve ridden a couple of times previously, parallels the Cheat River.
Small park in Rowlesburg, which was perfect for a drink break.
Rowlesburg is a cute little town in a very pretty location, but it has seen better days. It’s one of those railroad towns of which there are plenty in the Appalachian Mountains that thrived in a different era, but struggles to hang on today. It’s doing better than most, however, so if you are in the area, be sure to stop by for a visit.
Hubby waiting for me to finish documenting the trip. He's a great sport.
Here’s a bit of Rowlesburg’s history if you are interested. Nice place, but still not aforementioned the high point.
After that, we continued to US-50 and headed east. I’d always wanted to visit Cathedral State Park, which is where we stopped for lunch.
Hubby posed with our little picnic spread of bread, cheeses, pepperoni and olives. YUM.
We found a nice little shady spot to eat our lunch, which we’d picked up much earlier in the day at the huge Martin’s grocery store in Lavale, MD.
The trail through the hemlock forest.
I want to go back to Cathedral State Park one day for a hike. Doesn’t it look like a nice place for a stroll?
Hubby waiting patiently. Again.
The picnic was awesome. But it’s still not the high point. Want to know what the high point was?
At 3,213 feet, Mt. Davis is the highest point of elevation in Pennsylvania.
Most of you know that Shannon, our oldest daughter, has been off seeing the world since last October. October 1 to be exact.
At the time of this writing, she’s been gone for 294 days. That’s 9 months, 21 days excluding the end date. If you prefer to think of it in terms of weeks, think 42. Forty-two weeks!
Dang.
Wanna read about her journey? Check out her blog. Or, if you’re a more visual person like yours truly and would rather just SEE where she’s been, check out my snazzy Google tracker map.
Hubby and I have been 100% supportive of her journey since the minute she came to us with her “what do you think of this” speech. She thought for sure at least one of us would’ve given her a reality check. She was wrong.
Anyway…
One of the reasons she was able to just up and go is that she doesn’t own a house. Her timing was quite fortuitous, too. She left right after the lease on her apartment expired. She just changed her mailing address to our place so we could keep an eye on her mail and help take care of things that might need taken care of while she was away.
She’s gotten all sorts of mail over the past 42 weeks. Hubby and I look it over when it arrives to decide if it’s something she needs to know about now, something we should save for later or something we should trash immediately.
Yesterday a piece of mail arrived that Hubby decided she definitely does NOT need to see.
