May 15.
The next morning was dry, thank goodness, and the Timberline Lodge looked just as respectable in daylight as it had the night before.
After our breakfast, we headed out. We were all getting really tired, and we still had two long days ahead of us – we were till over 600 miles from home! Today, though, we were going to make a silly and arbitrary trip into West Virginia for the sole purpose of picking up ELEVEN STATES in ELEVEN DAYS. we couldn’t resist!
[[As per all long trips and second children, there aren’t as many photographs on these last days as there were at the beginning. It’s tragic, but it’s human nature (and did I mention that we were so tired?)]]
This ride was really pretty, I wish we had more (any) photos of it.
Highlights of the day: Checking on the funny oil leak Janice’s bike had developed (we didn’t have any Harleys with us any more, so hers was compensating?)
Stopping in WV to tighten Mike’s chain
and the friends we made there:
Things we should have taken pictures of:
- When we stopped for a map check in WV and ran into a passel of motorcyclists who had trailered their sportsbikes in from Ontario. We had a nice talk with a few of them, and this this, well, old guy in a well worn ‘stitch comes barreling over and starts saying stuff like: “Eh, you couldn’t get away from your wives for a ride?” What’s a girl supposed to do? I looked him in the eye and said: “Wanna Race?” It was amazing how quickly his buddies were apologizing – in the funniest ways! “he’s old!” “he doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” (Did they think he would get housed by the young lady on the DRZ SM? not at 40-odd horsepower he wouldn’t have. Though I am scrappy.)
- The Awfully Nice Guy we met at a gas-and-lunch stop in West Virginia – he was on a moto guzzi and we bonded over our small light flickable bikes, and I emailed him the link to our travel tumbler right away. He’s involved with the WV Moto Guzzi Owners Club and I hope we can meet up with him on our next trip down to WV!
We did manage to find (nestled in some mountains) a DMV motorcycle testing course, and rode around in circles for fun and u-turn practice.
We ended the day in typical Flying Circus fashion by overshooting our hotel and accidentally getting onto a highway before finding our way back to the room, and making several U-Turns on our way to a Hardee’s for dinner. Not the smoothest way to end the day, and it’s much funnier when Mike S. is the one leading us on U-Turn adventures.
[[check out the summary post with lessons learned, and a full index to this ride report post.]]
