Day One

The first day of the trip was a mix. Hot and cool. No traffic to miles-long traffic backup. Calm to irritated.  But most of all, it was a good ride.

At 10am, we pulled out of the parking lot at the house.  It was already pretty warm, so I was already drenched in sweat from loading the trailer and getting the trailer and bike hooked together. The trailer was more packed than I had hoped, but it wasn't completely overloaded.

Well, the first mishap was getting half lost in Durham. I had decided to take US 15 all the way to Frederick, MD so we could stay off the Interstate. My bad--I thought 15-501 stayed together for a while north of Durham. Well, it doesn't!  About 5 miles north of Durham, I noticed that there was no sign of US 15, so we had to backtrack until we could get on US 15. It worked out OK..

The Hwy had very light traffic, and the scenery was green, so it was a nice ride.  At Clarksville, VA, we stopped for lunch. We went to a place where I had eaten on an earlier ride. The food was good the first time, but this time that was not the case.  I really like Italian food, and I was hungry, so we got the buffet because there was a pasta with lots of cheese and red sauce. Bad choice. It had absolutely no flavor.  It looked like a baked Ziti, but tasted like mush. Ugh! I did eat two pieces of pizza that were OK, and the tomatoes on the salad bar were good. But otherwise, it was not good. My last time there...

The rest of the ride was nice until we hit Leesburg VA, where traffic stopped. After a while, we found that it was the old 2 into 1 lane trick, followed by another merging lane. That delayed our arrival to our Motorcycle Travel Network home in Frederick by about 45 minutes. If it had happened early in the ride, I'd have been a little irritated. But at the end of a long, hot day of riding, I was well beyond irritated. Again, my bad for letting it bother me so much.

The MTN home we are staying in is UNIQUE.  We should have known when we saw the 8 foot tall rooster in the front yard that it was not an ordinary house. The second clue was the 6 foot diameter metal hornets nest hanging from a tree above the walkway to the house.

Eccentric is the best descriptor for the lady of the house! She's as nice as she can be, but her artwork is a real trip. Actually, after I had a chance to look around some and to talk with her, I came to really like and appreciate her handiwork. A lot of it is using broken glass and ceramic pieces to make a scene or just art on virtually any surface. Walls, mirrors, doors, fireplace mantle, medicine cabinet--whatever surface strikes her fancy. For instance, the backsplash above the kitchen sink and cabinets is broken pieces of mirrors, and it becomes a flower garden on the adjacent wall. I loved it! She's very talented.

The husband is a really neat guy. 72 years old, but looks and acts as if he's in his mid-50s. Rides a tricked up Gold Wing and 4 or 5 dirt bikes. Mostly rides the dirt bikes now since his wife does not ride anymore (health issues).  Married for more than 50 years, they're a very neat couple and very interesting people.  We're enjoying our stay with them very much. They also keep cups of frozen margaritas in the freezer and invites their guests to help themselves. We did!

Tomorrow we'll do a day trip to Gettysburg to view the battleground.

Till next time...