A twisty 13th day on our cross-country BMW trip

Part of the fun of traveling across the country is to eat meals in local restaurants in the small towns we pass through. We've noticed that whole grain bread, fruit and vegetables are much more difficult to find in the South, and today was the first time I've ever seen bologna on the menu. Bologna was one of the meat options at breakfast (sausage, bacon, or bologna) in Sparta, NC and a fried bologna sandwich with American cheese was on the lunch menu in Franklin, WV.  We passed on both.

After breakfast without bologna, we started our ride heading northeast through the Appalachian Mountains, quickly crossing from North Carolina into Virginia, and then crossing back and forth across the West Virginia/Virginia border.

Once again we rode through misty fog created by low-hanging clouds that remind me of the cotton spiderwebs used to decorate for Halloween.

The sun quickly burned off the mist, and we enjoyed sunny skies for most of the day.

Our ride took us through green farmland with fat and happy cows grazing on the steep hillsides, to technical twisties up, down, and around the mountains. The tight corners, 9% grades down the mountains, rivers and streams running along the road, and the green fields and forests made this an absolutely awesome day.

Mid-morning we were startled when a bear shambled across the road in front of us, and an hour or so later a young fawn scurried across the road.

Our route took us through several national forests:  Jefferson, Washington, and Monongahela and we even went past the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, home to the most accurate large dish radio telescope in the world. Soon after we passed the observatory and were winding our way up and down the mountains on WV 28, the BMW's odometer rolled over to 6000 miles. We did a little happy dance and continued zooming on our way.

We ended the day in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley  Tomorrow we'll continue northeast, dipping into Delaware to cross it off our list of new states.  Here is today's route

Mountain tops and valleys

We slept in this morning, starting our trip to Bowling Green, KY at 9am. Mike plotted today's route, starting on Route 119 south, turning onto 23 north, and then onto 80 heading southwest. The road twisted up and down through the Allegheny Mountains. We gazed at green trees that cover every surface and incredibly steep local roads that wind in and out of the hills. Tall, rocky cliffs hugged the road and a few times we caught sight of coal mining operations.

We followed the signs for 80 off the main highway, and were treated to a narrow 2-lane road that wound along the bottom of the mountains, twisting its way through green, wet trees covered with kudzu. Every mile or so we'd pass a small group of homes and a church, but never an actual town. Finally we found a town as we turned into Hyden and ate lunch at the local Subway where the man at the counter told us the area was under a tornado watch for the rest of the day.

kudzu-covered trees and shrubs

The morning was the best part of today, as we spent the rest of the day on 4-lane parkways that took us from the steep hills of West Virginia into the open, rolling farmland of southern Kentucky. We rode through a few small rain storms, but when the sky turned black and we saw lightning, we pulled off the highway onto a side road and ended up at a family grocery store. The store was closed, but the owner let us park the bike and shelter under the awning, and even gave us a can of soda. Mike spent the time petting their cat, and after 30 minutes we were back on the road.

We rode 370 miles today, met friendly people, and missed the worst of the storms. Tomorrow we keep traveling west, toward the Mississippi.

Holiday Inn Express Too Far

We left home at 5:30am to a pink sunrise, and 16 1/2 hours later pulled into a Holiday Inn Express in Charleston, WV just after sunset. It was the longest day we've ever had on the BMW but we wanted to put a lot of miles behind us on the first day of our trip to Sedalia, MO for the BMW rally. 750 miles, to be exact. States:  Vermont, New York, Pennsylvannia and West Virginia. Mountains:  Taconics, Catskills, Poconos, Allegheny. Temperature:  68 at home in Vermont; 101.4 on the Interstate in West Virgina, 86 degrees in Charleston. 4 stops for gas, 1 stop for lunch, 1 stop for ice cream.

FDR Bridge over the Hudson in Poughkeepsie, NY

Our goal is the 40th BMW MOA International Rally, about 1600 miles from our home in southwestern Vermont. We have 3 days to get as close to Sedalia as we can, planning to arrive at the rally mid-morning on Friday.

Putting in a lot of miles today sounded like a good idea when we did our initial planning. We were frustrated with plotting a route primarily on smaller roads, trying to stay off the Interstate system as much as possible. I tried several websites, Mike attempted to load the final version into the Garmin but ended up having to plot it all over again, and we finally relied on a huge fold-out map of the US. We learned along the road that the Garmin has a mind of its own, routing us onto 87, the busy Northway. We got off at Exit 16, only to find ourselves in Kiryas Joel, a community of Hasidic Jews near Woodbury Common outlets. We rode past broken-down three and four-story apartment buildings; groups of men wearing black suits and white shirts waiting at the bus stops; and women dressed in long skirts and brightly-colored head scarves outside with their children. Unlike other towns, none of the children smiled or waved as we rode past. It was depressing and eerie, and a wholly unexpected detour.

We finally rode into Scranton, PA and stumbled upon the Moosic Diner. I love stopping at local restaurants, and when we saw four motorcycles parked out front, we knew we found a special place.

Two of the guys live north of Philly and were headed to Ohio for a classic bike show. The other two live in the area, and gave us tips on the next section of our journey. Good thing, because by this time we had no idea what route the Garmin chose for us. After exchanging stories about favorite roads and scary things that happen while riding a motorcycle, we set off for a hot afternoon riding through Pennsylvania and into West Virginia.

We were ready for the heat, but weren't expecting the twisting roads through the mountains. I told Mike the scenery reminded me of Vermont, and the guy we met at dinner agreed. He has relatives in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, and the first time he visited he told them it looked just like West Virginia. We traveled 750 miles and the scenery at the beginning of the trip was almost exactly the same as the scenery at the end of the day. Small world.

Our goal for this trip is to have fun and experience new adventures. We accomplished both today.