The Skyline Drive Ride

I think only NASA puts in as much time and effort into weather study for their events, as we did for the ride to Skyline Drive. The issue was that of course we didn't want to ride in the rain but we did want to ride. September and October are pivot weather months, the heat of summer is leaving and winter is coming in. You never know if it's going to be hot or cold. This can create very intense storms. No matter how you look at historical weather trends, you really can't see what's going to happen until two or three days before an event, at least on the East coast. It takes about three days for weather on the West coast to travel east and hit us. During that time weather can build or dissipate. In our case two systems joined up in the mid-west to create a larger more intense front that was due to hit the DC-Baltimore area. The question was, "when would it hit"? As it turns out it hit Saturday evening making the ride to Skyland on Skyline Drive a great ride.

Although, the original invite list included seven people, three people couldn't make it. We had Billy "Reb Boy" R., Chris V., Kurt Z., and me Rick. We were coming from different parts of the metro area, Kurt in Glyndon MD, Me in Annapolis MD, Chris in Ellicott City MD, and Billy in Frederick MD. I think Kurt and I had the farthest to travel Billy the least. My trip would have been much shorter if I'd followed the google/gps route through DC. However, we all dislike 495 and riding though DC so I decided to extend my ride and meet Kurt just off route 70 at the Sykesville exit. We would then meet up with Chris and Billy later on.

I'm currently riding a 2000 Honda Shadow Sabre VT1100 C2. Kurt rides a 2012 Honda Goldwing 1800 the Cadillac of bikes. Chris has a gorgeous 1997 BMW R1200 RT (a bike I would love to own) Billy owns a classic mid 80's Harley Davidson. His is a wild bike. It got it's Rebel paint job from the guy who paints Jay Leno's bike(s). The historic license plate sports "REBBOY". The bike has what I think is called "open pipes", it's LOUD; you don't want to ride to closely behind Billy or you go deaf. As it turns out Kurt and I didn't end up meeting Chris and Billy until we were all inside the park.

We had originally planned to meet at White's Ferry on the Maryland side and continuing on to the Northern entrance of Skyline drive at Front Royal Virgina. With the bad weather moving in we jointly decided that getting to our rooms at Skyland as early as possible was prudent. For the most part we all took Rt 70 out to Frederick, South on 340 to Front Royal and then on to the Drive to mile marker 41.7. We got to Skyland at about 1:30pm which was a good thing as the rain started about an hour after we arrived. Our rooms weren't ready when we checked in so we decided to go down to the pig roast and get something to drink and eat.

They were having a wine and beer tasting along with the pig roast. Chris and Billy chose beer. Kurt and I aren't much on beer and local wine aint the greatest as I've found out from other tastings. We'd each brought a bottle of our favorite libation. Chris brought a bottle of Jose Cuervo Oak Cured Tequila, Kurt brought a bottle McClelland’s Single Malt Scotch, I brought my old favorite, plain old Mount Gay Rum. Billy eschews ruining the fine lines of a classic motorcycle and opted for carrying nothing on the bike and drinking what is available locally. Kurt and I each got a cup of ice and headed back to the bikes to dip into the private reserves.

The food at the pig roast was good. There was of course the roast pig, meat and veggie chili, corn on the cob, corn bread, and various slaws. The entertainment was provided by a local Blue Grass band. The dining experience became difficult as the storm rolled in and flipped paper plates and toppled cups. It was time to get into the rooms.

Chris volunteered to scale the mountain and get the keys from the main office to our rooms. I was very impressed by his efforts. Considering that he scooted right past the Japanese Assault team that established a base camp at the pig roast to mount ascent to the top of the mountain. They were part of peak bagging party. After, White Mountain in Vermont, Mt. Rainier in Washington, and Denali in Alaska, this was their last and most difficult climb. I think they were somewhat delayed by the local wine and beer and trying to sing Karaoke show tunes to the traditional beat of Blue Grass music. And, perhaps my memories of these events was somewhat clouded by Mount Gay Rum. But I know Chris did get the keys.

Our rooms had balconies that faced West and we could watch as the storm bands passed over the western peaks and the valley below. We of course had more libation as we settled in. We'd noticed that the band had stopped. (The assault team seemed to be passed out under the picnic tables) We were told that the band would continue playing up at the bar at the top of the mountain. Many of us wondered aloud why there was no cable car installed like they have in the Alps. I opted for hopping into the back of a pickup truck going up while the other guys did an unassisted, rope-less climb.

More to come

New front tire for the Sabre at 45,000 miles

While I was cleaning the bike about two weeks ago, I noticed that the front tire seemed to have some dry rot spots on the side walls. When the bike was inspected in February (2012) they said that the tread wear was close to replacement at 2/32, the replacement depth being 1/32, it wasn't a ding on the inspection check list. I decided that with the ride to skyline drive coming up I should probably replace the tire. The rear tire was replaced along with the rear brakes and rotor during the inspection at 42,000 miles.

Like many leasure riders I don't ride the bike that much. Kari and I ride it to the farmers market on Saturday mornings, which is a total of 8 miles. I like riding the bike I just don't like the hot weather. This summer was hot. If we had a cool morning or evening I would hop on the bike and do a little ride down bayridge which leads out to the bay. Again, a ride of only 6 miles.

The longest rides I've done were from the Sanford/Orlando autotrain station to our house in Juno Beach, about 180 miles. I took the bike down in February and brought it back in May. While in Florida I did some short rides into the interior of Florida to Lake Okeechobee, and then some short rides up and down the beach road. I don't really use the bike for a daily ride down there either. As most people know, Florida is jam packed with "the ancient and infirmed". Driving/riding in the heavy trafficked areas like Ft. Lauderdale and Miami is as bad if not worse than driving the DC beltway in rush hour. Fortunately, from West Palm Beach North things aren't quite that bad. And, from our area Juno Beach/Jupiter North things really slow down. Mostly because our area isn't as commercialized as further south. We don't have big hotels on the beach, actually we don't have any hotels on the beach. In Juno/Jupiter we only have 3 hotels, Best Western, Hampton Inn, and Holiday Inn Express. They each have about 50 rooms. So ours isn't a big "destination" vacation spot.