I was very happy with how the bike ran. The only issues I had were my right "Switchblade" highway peg loosened up. I could use just the peg but if I put the heel stirrup down the peg would shift down with the weight of my foot. We stopped for gas, I purchased a cheap set of SAE Allen keys, again. These pegs and the highway bars are the only SAE components on the bike. Oddly, not even the highway bars are completely SAE. There are four bolts two of the bolts go into the frame and need longer metric bolts. The other tow bolts are to clamps and use supplied SAE bolts.
I never got around to tightening up the peg. The other issue was that I was hearing a bit too much clatter from the engine. I checked the oil, I was at the lower end of the stick, a pinch below the low level. We stopped and I bought a quart of oil and a nice little long spout funnel, great for carrying on a trip for topping off the oil. I new I was a pinch short on oil when I changed it. I had a solid 3 quarts of oil, I then added about 2 ounces of MMO. When I checked it it looked OK. The bike is supposed to take 3.3 quarts of oil with an oil change. Apparently, I drained a bit more than that. Of course, when I stopped I checked to make sure I didn't have any leaks at the oil filter or drain bolt, all was fine.
My route was Annapolis to the park and ride on route 32 to meet Kurt and Per, 44.6 miles.
From there we were supposed to go to the south/east side of Whites Ferry and take it across to the Virginia side. What I didn't know was that when Kurt sent me the itinerary he listed the address of the far side, the Virginia side. The GPS dutifully took us to the bridge that would lead us over the Potomac and to the far side of White's Ferry. I stopped at a gas station on route 15, short of the ferry because I was baffled. Kurt new the problem. HMMM, oddly, I just checked my GPS for recent navigation points, I plugged in, 24801 White's Ferry Rd.Dickerson, Maryland 20842, which is the MD side. I suppose that it was faster to do the Virginia route than go back roads to the MD side.
We ended up going out route 70 and taking the turn off down 340/15. This looks like it took us through Leesburg and Haymarket down to route 29/15/211. This took us another 31miles to this turn onto 211, my mileage would have been 81 miles.
We then travelled along 211 into Sperryville to meet Chris. Another 37 miles for a total of 111 miles for me. A riding note here; this route along route 211 was excellent riding. It was a mostly concrete two lane highway that gave views of the mountains. We travelled at anywhere from 50 to 70 mph. This is the way to ride! Skyline Drive is okay except that you travel at 35 mph, always in fear of hitting deer or park police, that guard the speed limit diligently, as well they should. A high speed impact with a deer on a bike is likely deadly for all.
We had lunch at the Thornton River Grille ( http://www.thorntonrivergrille.com/ ). I had a very good Bleu Cheese Burger, they also had the only beer I care to drink Pilsner Urquell (http://pilsnerurquell.com/age-gate ). It was moderately priced $10 for the burger $5 for the beer.
We then hopped up onto Skyline Drive and headed South. We went all the way down to the Rockfish Gap entrance/exit just outside of Waynesboro, a leg of about 75 miles, bringing my total up to 186 miles.
We looked for a bar but really didn't find anything palatable nor did we see a hotel that was acceptable. Kurt and Per had a friend staying up in Harrisonburg, home of James Madison University. We headed through Waynesboro to Route 81. I absolutely hate 81, it's busy, it's full of big rigs; if you're doing the posted speed of 70 mph, you're going slow. We took 81 up to Harrisonburg and got off to mosey through town at 25 mph and see the sites. It was getting to be 5pm and kids were heading out to dinner and Saturday night happy hours.
Per and Kurt found a "Tilted Kilt" sports bar listed in Yelp, we found our way to a mall location, I was very disappointed; I don't like malls, especially when I have stuff out on my bike for easy pickings. The trip was roughly another 40 miles, my total 240 miles ( I know my averages don't quite add up in this trip log, google says it was 240).
The Tilted Kilt is a typical T&A sports bar. I've never found the ladies at Hooter's to be all that enticing. However, this Tilted Kilt had JMU to draw from and the ladies were very attractive. Our waitress was getting her master's and was well endowed, but not overly so. The food was typical bar food; I had a scottish steak sub, so so.
There was some debate over the hotel. Per had a grudge against Motel 6, I don't know what it was, but I can understand there are places that I just won't patronize. We had past a Budget Inn on the way to the Tilted Kilt, it looked shabby at best. I knew we were in trouble when we walked into the bery strong smell of curry, and the little Indian lady could barely see above the counter top. I'd had a poor experience at an Indian owned hotel on a trip to the Northeast. I don't mean to sound racist, different cultures have different acceptable practices.
On my trip to the Northeast, it was probably a budget inn; they advertised WiFi, which is a must for me and a free breakfast. I check the hours of the breakfast, I was told 6-9 am. I showed up at about 7:30 and there was no breakfast. I was told that all the other patrons, all the relatives living on the second floor had eaten, since I hadn't showed up, they cleaned up.
At the Harrisonburg location we were shown our rooms by the male owner. I asked about ice and he said he would bring us bags of ice. We'd gotten three rooms and each of us had different tastes in beverages but all required ice. I headed up to the office and was met by the owner with three tiny little bags of ice, it looked like gelding day on the farm. There was about a half a tray of ice in each bag. The rooms all had window air conditioners that were not on when we went in. It had been a 90 degree day, the rooms were hot. I swore that the little dorm friges were just painted cardboard boxes with little lights inside. I won't fault them for that, most hotel fridges are marginal. The beds weren't too bad.
We pulled chairs out into the breezeway and started drinking... until 2:30am! I haven't been up that late in years.
In the morning, we sadly got back onto 81 and headed North. I think we hopped off to get on Route 11 which parallels 81. This was a nice little farm road that let us move at a respectable 50ish. We cut off on 259 heading Northwest through the Shenandoah Forest. I was then surprised that we were going to head through Wardensville WV.
My uncle Stu grew up in Wardensville, his brother was the town sheriff. As we passed through I saw the cattle gate that heads down to his cabin and deer hunting property. We wove along heading over small roads and towns until we finally had to get back on 81 to get to Martinsburg. About another 120 miles, 350 miles for me.
Heading Northeast we found a bypass to get us over to Route 40 in MD, through Antietam and on to
Boonsboro, roughly another 28 miles a total of 378 miles.
We then took route 40 into Frederick, Kurt and Per headed North to Glyndon; Chris and I headed more south, he to Ellicott City, me to Annapolis. Chris took me down 144, which is Old Frederick Pike. I then took 32 south all the way to where it intersected 97, which I didn't know. Google shows the route to be 476 miles. By my odometer I was very close to 500 miles. We had a few back tracks and minor lost spots, they might have equaled 25 miles.
These are the roads I want to take to Florida next month. Roads that let me go 50 to 60 mph with out the heavy truck traffic or high speed wind buffeting.
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