Rough night.  Went to bed late watching Eagle Eye – not even a very good movie.    And I didn’t finish it.  What made it worse was waiting up at 4am with abdominal pains.  Dropping Mendy in the parking lot and picking it back up the night before pretty much accounts for the back pain.  Stupid mistake, helmet was jammed between the windscreen and the tank bag.  I pulled off without checking the steering lock and tipped it over when I needed to straighten out but couldn’t.

Tummy issues wasn’t from dinner the night before, more likely a legacy of my appendicitis.  Every once in a while, things just don’t work quite right and pain is the result.  When it gets really bad, I start throwing up and then it feels like I’ve been swallowing broken glass bottles.   Not so bad this time, but didn’t get much sleep and pretty much lost my appetite for most of the day.  And I’ll get to look forward to bouts of what feels like digesting glass for the next few days.  Yay.

I made my way over to Hershey’s World of Chocolate.   Neat place, good way to balance out the Park.

I can easily see people coming and spending an entire weekend in Hershey.   Lots of tourists on busses – bunch of asian ones gathered around me as I parked and asked a few questions.   Feeling cheap, I didn’t want to pay for any of the shows or activities – so I just took their tour and wandered around the gift shop.  I think if I was having a better day, I would have done some more.

Giant 5lb chocolate bars!

Short little detour back to Harrisburg as I went the wrong way before ending up in Lancaster.  I pulled over at the Costco to relax and figure out where I wanted to go.  Grabbed a hot dog and drink – managed to eat half of it before I just wanted to sit down and rest my eyes.  Never really managed to decide what to do, but since the Visitor Center was across the street, I hoped I’d be able to figure it out there.

Once inside, I grabbed a guidebook, sat in a rocking chair and promptly started to nod off.  In the condition I was in, riding wasn’t a good idea and I wasn’t about to come up with a better plan.   Fortunately, they had a guided bus tour.  I paid my fees and mostly sat in their mini-bus trying not to fall asleep.   It was still a good intro to the Amish and the county.  I had envisioned all the Amish together, rather than interspersed with the rest of the population.  Not sure I would have so easily picked out which houses were Amish and why.

As with all bus tours, there was the obligatory stop at a store.  I did manage to taste some home made root beer.  Tasty stuff, reminds me that I always wanted to brew my own.  Never got around to asking if they used the original ‘banned’/carcinogenic  sassafras root not…

Another covered bridge as part of the Amish tour.  We got to go through this one.

After the tour, I felt fairly well rested and took the 340, then the 30 East before turning north on the 1.  The one was just as bad as the 1 in Miami – only even less to see.  Lots of lights and traffic.  Stop and go.  I finished off the tank as I passed Trenton NJ and decided to call it a day.   Put together a more solid plan for tomorrow and put some solid miles then.  Hopefully the weather holds.

Checking into the Howard Johnson Express, it seemed a little dirty/cheap, but nothing worse than usual, I thought.  Then after I finished the paperwork, the manager asked me to to bring the bike back up to the front and park it near the office for the night.  So they can keep an eye on it.  Not a big deal, rather nice of them.

I lubed the chain, grabbed a shower and moved the bike back out to the front.  Asked for where to go for dinner and was told that it’s all highway.  No where within walking distance, but I could order in.   Okay, not ideal, but I can live with that.  The first thing they gave me was chinese food menu.  The other options were pizza – and they would take over an hour to deliver.  I settled on the chinese and placed my order.   Then the chinese restaurant wouldn’t take credit card – “Cash only for deliveries to Howard Johnson”.   Winner for sketchiest motel to date.

The food was, predictably, awful.

What came out of the bag – pretty sure the hot sauce was some louisiana hot sauce.

Worst chow fun ever…

I don’t even know what this was… Szechuan Shrimp?

At least I had left overs for the next day!

Nice grassy KOA site.

I hopped onto the 30 back East.  Much to my surprise, the Flight 93 Memorial was just off the highway.  I considered going past it, but it was a nice surprise.

Memorial wall with names runs along the flight path, pointing to a boulder marking the crash point.

I’m glad I went to the Memorial, I was oddly choked up about it.  After so many war memorial, this one about innocents on an unlucky flight some morning touched a nerve.  Wrong flight, go see the wrong movie.  Never know how you’ll go out.  At least these people got the chance to fight back and give their lives to save others.

Back on the highway, I stopped for gas and lunch at Sheetz.   Given how long the lines were, I thought it would be a decent meal.  Not so much – I guess it was just the lunch rush.  I wouldn’t go back.

Gettysburg was less interesting to me.  I guess the real reason I went was all the map levels in Starcraft.  Figured I should stop by the actual battle scene and check out one of the highest casualty battlegrounds and the supposed turning point of the war.

I rode most of the Auto Tour, but realized I didn’t have enough context to understand what was going on.  I figured if I ducked into the Visitor Center and watched the movie, I might understand what I was looking at… But that stuff is expensive.  Certainly not something I was willing to pay for.  Wikipedia will have to do.

Site of the Gettysburg address.

After the rain stopped, I continued east to Hershey.  Went past Attraction Drive before pulling over for some gas.  The nearest KOA was too far and a call to the Hershey campground was $45 a night.  The gas station attendant suggested that heading north was the direction for cheap stays and I ended up at the Dutch Motel in Palmyra. They wanted $60, but some haggling got it down to a reasonable price.

Crossed the street for dinner at Tatiana’s.  Quick google showed some positive reviews and that was good enough for me.

Fairly plain looking Mushroom soup.  Tastier than you’d think.

Coliseum Bone-In New York.   Very good, and first time I’ve ever had New York that way before.  Was a little more well done than I would have liked(touch closer to the medium side of Medium Rare).  But topped with sausage and seafood, it was amazing.

It sounds like this is one situation where asking the locals wouldn’t have done any good.  The local ‘dutch’ community isn’t very adventurous when it comes to dining.  Chatting with the chef/owner, it sound like almost all his traffic is from out of town.  Strong reviews on Trip Advisor and I would agree.  Worth going, if a little expensive.

Took it under suggestion to take the 50 out west.   Swung past the Pentagon and Arlington Cemetery.  I think the thing that surprised me the most was how close everything was to the Capitol.

Pentagon

The 50 itself wasn’t much fun for the first little while.  Lots of traffic lights – but cleared up once I got past Winchester.  Nice road, twisty, not crowded.   Fairly shaded so it wasn’t too hot.  Solid riding.

At least until this little bastard made it into my helmet.   I don’t even know how he got in – normally the visor is open, I feel something hit my face and then slide into the gap.   So I thought I was imagining things at first – then it was a lot of riding down the highway smacking my own head.   I must have looked ridiculous.

Country Fried Steak at Log Cabin Grille.

Highway 26 from Marletta to Woodfield is a Ohio Scenic Byway.   I wasn’t really sure why it was in my list of goals, but I didn’t mind.  Beautiful little bit of road.  Twisty, shaded.. And then I passed a Covered Bridge.  Very cool, but I blew past it and pulled up at this one:

Only after did I realize there were marker posts along the way to turn off to see more things.  I guess if I had really done my homework, I would have that information ahead of time.  The few turnoffs I did see after this appeared to be dirt, so not something I had the appetite for anyway.

Pulled over at the McDonald’s at Woodsfield to grab a drink and figure out where to go next.   Found a KOA in Washington, PA, and realized I had some riding yet and not much daylight left.   Didn’t end up spending any money – the manager teased me about stealing wifi on my way out.  Not really sure what she said since I had my earplugs in…  But I’m sorry!  I meant to spend money!

I got to the KOA with a fair bit of time.  One of the better KOAs for tent camping – actual grass and level pads for tents.   Not so great for motorcycles, long ring road up and gravel roads down to the sites.   I actually got there with some time to spare and took a dip in their pool.  Very nice feeling, but really went to show how broken I was.  Even a lazy swim down a pool made me feel like I pulled something in my shoulders.  Two months of pretty much just riding and walking is starting to take it’s toll.

Makes me worried about an Iron Butt attempt. That was a longish day, but only 439miles.  Slow miles, so it’s possible I would have done a lot more miles given the same amount of time on a real attempt on big highways.  But I ached afterwards in the pool.  I suspect the real attempt is going to involve additives – painkillers and energy drinks…

I got up fairly early, but spending some time to try and catch up on the blog made any potential of an early start disappear.   But I managed to get online and leave a message for Duc Pond about the chain and oil change.

Decent roads on this portion of the Parkway.  Not nearly as good as the south end.  As everyone says, you should really go south – then the roads just get better and better.

More of very similar views:

As things were warmer there were a lot more flying insects.   Almost every time I opened up my visor to let some air in, I’d get whacked in the face and close it again.  The smaller ones were also somehow surviving and crawling about the inside of the visor.   At least they weren’t crawling around my ears this time.  In my laziness, I had not buttoned up my jacket sleeve.  Apparently something flew up there and got really angry.  My forearm felt like it was on fire.   And unlike some people, when I took off the jacket, there was a clear, fresh wound still oozing.   Too bad the camera focused on the jacket instead of my arm..

At the end of the Parkway, I pulled out to Waynesboro to get some gas.  I also took this time to place a call with Duc Pond to set up an appointment.   Since the service manager was on the other line, I took the time to check my coolant levels.   Down… Way down below the ‘min’ level.   Unfortunately, the gas station only had 1G jugs of premix.  I ask for directions to something better and the attendant pointed me towards an Advance.  On my way there, I saw a bike shop and pulled over there instead.

Got my coolant and since my call with Duc Pond confirmed that they only had the Scorpion for the front – no PR3’s, I picked up a front tire as well.  Made a huge mess of their parking lot with the coolant, strapped the tire to stack of stuff and made my way to Shenandoah National Park.

More similar views – but with more cities in the valleys now, I think.

But riding through the covered sections was a nice change – different trees at least.

View from the Visitor Center.  Seems like this was the first National Park east of the Mississippi.  Rail travel out west was too expensive, and as people started owning cars, they wanted something closer to home.  It was a big political and financial challenge, but they eventually got a National Park out east in Virginia.

View from the Visitor Center

Everything’s breaking or wearing out – even Buddy Bison’s biner’s done now.

I hadn’t stopped for much of anything so far.  One of the rangers along the Parkway warned of a crazy storm on it’s way south.   She expected it to hit at 4pm and probably sooner as I was heading north.  At least she said I’d see it coming…

As a result, I pushed on through most of the park, not doing any of the hikes.  Maybe for the best, since the park was littered with homeless hippy looking types looking to hitchike for a ride.

Some of the incoming clouds towards the end of the park.

End of the park itself

More crazy clouds.

Pulling over in Front Royal, I looked for a place to eat somewhere between there and Duc Pond.  Googling for chowhound Front Royal bbq took me to Butcher Block Buffet.  I probably should have read the thread a little more carefully – they basically just said that they had BBQ and it was toddler friendly – not that it was actually any good.

The food wasn’t bad… A tiny step up from Uncle Willy’s.

Chicken & Dumpling Soup, Buffalo Chicken Salad and a salad bar salad with some sort of smoked dressing.

Fried chicken, baked chicken, smoked chicken, ribs,  meatball, mac & cheese and fried catfish.

Unfortunately, as usual with my experience at US buffets, my appetite is quickly lost as I start to fill up and look around.  Since this was my only meal, I did eat fairly early (6pm).   And I guess the early bird/senior special was on.   Lot of overweight old folks… escorting even older people to the buffet.  Didn’t take long before I felt like I had enough.

I tracked down a cheap Best Western and checked in.  None too soon either, since it started to rain just as I pulled off the last bag into my room.   Then it really started to pour.   The storm forecasted was finally here – and I was indoors!   At least I wasn’t foolish enough to ignore it entirely and try my hand at camping again.  It was coming down so hard I didn’t even want to cross the parking lot to do laundry, never mind what it would have done to my poor Tarn3 tent.

I don’t know what this was, but I thought I was safe indoors!

All in all, a very fortunate day.  Only real bad experiences were the ones involving insects.  Either smacking me in the face, biting/stinging me in the arm, or crawling over my ear.   My arm still hurts from whatever happened earlier in the day.

Sleeping in a sloped tent surrounded by damp gear isn’t much fun.  I kept waking up after sliding down with my feet against the side of the tent.  And no matter which way I turned, I kept bumping into my damp riding gear.  Bleck!  I should have spent the time before trying to sleep to sort out the positioning for everything.   Still I woke up very well rested, despite the apparently lack of sleep.

The sun peeking over Mount Mitchell with the clouds rolling through.

All the riders that morning were moving on, so we all backed up our gear.  We agreed to meet at the restaurant for breakfast and the teacher and I went up to the top to see the observation area.

Smaller version of the platform they have at Clingman’s Dome

But much more cooperative weather.

We went back and had breakfast at the restaurant.  Gorgeous views with the sun and very relaxing to have a good sit down breakfast before the day really gets going.

Obligatory group shot with the bikes:

Following the BMW along the Parkway.  It was nice to ride with someone again.  We did eventually get our signals crossed and swapped positions after I missed a turn off.

Unfortunately, he was my rain talisman.  Not 30 seconds after he pulled off at Grandfather, did I get hit by a rain storm.  I lucked put and pulled into a Visitor Center just as it started to really come down.  No reception, so the other riders and I all suited up and went on our separate ways.  But it was just a typical rain storm and soon, I was sweating like crazy.  I pulled over to take of the rain gear and check out the Craft Center.

Really nice old mansion

With a stunning view of what was probably their domain.

I think I’d be happy with home like that… With the staff to take care of everything, of course.

Until the next gas stop, the riding was very solid.  Good clean roads, nice views.  Although all the views kind of start to look the same.  The Appalachians are old mountains, so everything’s a bit rounded and treed.   I kind of stopped pulling over at the view points.  But the sky was just clouding over as I stopped for gas.  And surprisingly enough, I bumped into the same 3 guys from the night before.  They had spent the night in Marion and were just grabbing a bite to eat at the gas station.   I filled up as well, just to have the sky open up and just dump rain.

We hung out for a bit and chatted.  Tried to figure out when the best time to head back out and talked about bikes and riding.  In the end, the rain slowed and they invited me to tag along – warning me of an incredibly loud exhaust on the Frankenbike…

It was loud, but nothing I haven’t experienced following a 600RR around.  Probably not even more annoying…  But they were a reasonably quick group of riders.  Much faster than I would probably, go, even if Mendy weren’t currently a beast fighting at the chain and lurching every which way.

It was kind of fun to watch them squirm in their seats tho’.  Anytime the road straightened out, you’d start to watch them stand up, shake their arms and feet.  Made my seat seem positively comfortable.

But it was a very educational ride and makes me miss riding with my crew.   They were a lot more comfortable with each other – changing positions and had their own signaling system.  I never had any idea what was going on and typically just slowed down once anything started to happen.

They also had much, much better eyes for wildlife than I did.  Even when their signals were clear: eg. pointing at a deer.  I almost never saw it until I was right on top of it and probably too late to avoid if it had been ready to dash onto the road anyway.

Being faster, they were also much less patient with traffic.  They would wait until one of them got a passing/dotted lane, but then just wave each other(and me) through.  Probably the only time I’ve passed on a double yellow.   Spotters make a huge difference.

Still, they were a comparatively mature group.  Crazier than I am exactly comfortable with, but mostly making decisions I agreed with…  They slowed down for almost all the turnouts and blind corners.  Very disciplined when stuck behind traffic, very willing to slow right down before nice turns just so they could enjoy that little bit.

Of course, after being stuck in traffic and rain for the better part of an hour, when things dried/cleared up, they got impatient and picked up the pace.  No way I was going to keep up.  I might have stood a chance if the chain wasn’t loose, but with the surging, it was difficult to get a good feel for the road.   Probably all for the best since I ‘missed’ all the excitement.   A stupid mustang was in our lane and nearly took two of them out.  They had less than 1/2 a lane left to avoid crashing.   I think if I had been around to witness that, I would have slowed right down and let them go ahead.   As it was, I eventually caught up when they were stuck in traffic.

Chatting with them at the next rest stop and gas station in Roanoake was quite nice.  Bunch of gear heads – hence the Franken bike… Top end from one bike, block from another, etc.  Made me wish I had a place to wrench on something.  Won’t be Mendy, but maybe an old Duc.  Get myself comfortable with the Desmo valves?

They nagged me to do something about Mendy’s chain, so I parted ways with them to a Howard Johnson before dark.  I lubed the chain and adjusted the tension before it got dark and I checked in.  At this point, pulling at the chain at the back of the sprocket showed daylight – the chain was officially done.  Tracked down the closest Ducati dealership and made a note to call them in the morning before crossing the street for some dinner.

Large lime margarita on the rocks with chips & salsa.

Fajitas Texana – Chicken, Shrimp and beef.

I had gotten there after 9pm and was taking my time eating and catching up on some reading.  But before long, they asked me if I needed box – they were closing at 10.   I ended up chugging the margarita and packing the rest to finish at the motel room.  Thoughts of catching up on the blog were a lost cause.   I just went to bed.

Leaving Oak Park Inn was more difficult than I thought.  So nice and chill, it would have been a good place to rest up.   But a sunny day was calling and I did want to get onto the Blueridge Parkway.

Waynesville up the I-40 was an experience.  Narrow winding highways with trucks all lined up in the right lane.  Too many trucks together to be able to stay far enough back away from the buffeting, and highly questionable when trying to pass with a high divider on the left and the trucks on the right.  Just not a lot of visibility.   I was happy to take the first exit towards Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

And better yet, it was the entry way to the Foothills Parkway!

Ride was decent, as were the views.

Gatlinburg was a gateway/tourist city.  Kind of like Banff on steroids.   Traffic was terrible, tacky stores all around.  Happy to get through it..

The road cutting through the park was really nice – if a bit congested.  You aren’t going to make up time on that road.

Smoky Mountains – at the border of NC and Tennessee

But as it is out east, it wasn’t long before the rain caught up.  I ducked out and took the road up to Clingman’s Dome since it looked clear up there.   It wasn’t raining, but certainly wasn’t clear.

Hike up to the observation tower

Spectacular views!   Kind of reminds me of the first time I went up to Montserrat in Spain…  Hiking into the clouds.  But I did go back and both times since, the hiking was awesome.  Guess it just means I have to come back here one day.

It cleared up by the time I got to the bottom.  It wasn’t a great idea to go up there in full gear, but the hike still improved my spirits.

Back down to the Cherokee end of the Park.  Farming museum, but as it had started to rain again, I just took a picture from the Visitor Center.

Blue Ridge Parkway!

Ducked out to Asheville for gas and some food.  I had been craving a hot dog and was about to eat one of those gas station roller concoctions when I passed this:

All The Way – Carolina style dog w/ coleslaw, mustard, onions, ketchup.

Great little hot dog joint.  Nice owner…  And I clued in after finishing eating that they were having a classic car show and shine.  And Mendy was taking up prime real estate.  Seems like what Wally’s on Kingsway should have been.  Oh well, it’s gone now.  I snapped a picture and got back on the Parkway.

Where the main Visitor Center for the Parkway was closed – after 5pm.

I wasn’t really sure where to go, so I pulled over at the next Visitor Center to use their washroom and look at their map.   3 bikers were pulled over eating some sandwiches/dinner.  We chatted briefly before I continued on to try my hand at some camping.

Mount Mitchell State park had camping, but all the sites were taken.  I was just about to leave when a Buell rider came down to say hello.  She mentioned that the sites were all taken and her site was too small for another tent, but I might try asking the BMW rider for some help.  She made introductions and we moved the picnic table and I piggy-backed at the site.

She was also unemployed and taking some time from looking to travel the country.  He was a teacher on his summer break and on his way to his cabin.  We sat around the fire chatting until after it got dark.  They both nagged me to call home, but I had no reception.

All in all, a great day, even with the rain.   National Parks, hiking, fun twisty roads and hanging out with other riders and campers.  Very much a throwback to being in the Grand Tetons.  I wish more of the trip was like this!