Thursday, September 11th

Let me begin by saying this was one of the best riding days I've ever had.

Garry over at STN had layed out a great route for us, from Winchester, VA to Columbus, OH via WV and OH twisty roads - 350 miles of no-slab, countersteering fun. We got off to a chilly, cloudy start finding our way out of Winchester - which is not the easiest thing to do. Passed right by DucPond Motorsports, but they weren't open yet. Jim was in the lead as we headed west, and we stopped after about an hour in Romney's McDonalds to warm up and get some caffeine. So far 50 was just OK, but was getting better the farther we went.

We had heard from several people to take a detour down 42 at Mt Storm, so we did just that. Road was very straight for a bit, right up to where the giant windmills are on the ridge. The scale of these things is really hard to grasp until you're right underneath them. At the bottom of one of the blades was a rig with a person working on it. Over the weekend we say several of these fan blades being trucked on the interstate - the first time you see one you're scratching your head going "what the heck is THAT?".

Then the road starts getting very twisty, which would have been great if there was 1/10th the truck traffic. Lots of dump trucks coming and going up and down the road, hard to get a long enough stretch to get in the groove. We took 42 down to the intersection with 93 at Scherr, then turned around and headed back up. Stopped along the way to get some shots of us in the curves. It's hard to strike a good balance between riding and stopping for photos, and I was hoping to do more photos than usual on this trip. Unfortunately (fortunately?) the riding was so terrific I never wanted to stop the flow.

Jim was then nice enough to get some shots of me

On the way back up 42 we split west on 93 through Bismark on the way to Davis and WV219. 93 was very...odd. Quite straight, deserted, it just felt very different from anything we had done up to that point. At one point the road ahead was being covered with what looked like clouds, and the left side of the road was bordered by a large concrete wall, like the sound barriers you sometimes see on the interstate. The clouds appeared to be rolling over this wall, and as we passed I caught a glimpse of some giant factory or plant down there, looking like some scene out of Dante's Inferno. I really should have gotten a picture of the place (no one to blame but myself, Jim had made it clear we could stop as often as I liked). We also passed this enormous power plant:

About halfway to Davis the sun just suddenly appeared in the sky. I'd never had such a quick transition from overcast to sunny blue skies before, it was quite startling.

Just outside of Davis we stopped for gas, snacks and water. We also adjusted our clothing to suit the much warmer day this was turning into. We thought of stopping by Blackwater Falls State Park, but that looked like too far a detour south, so when we got to WV219 we turned north to head back to our original route on US50. 219 was terrific! Very little traffic, lots of woods to ride through, and curve after curve.

Our next stop was in Rowlesburg, WV. There were a ton of bike gathered in the parking lot of Cool Springs Park, so we pulled in to see what was going on. Turns out it was a group of sportbike riders from VA on their way to Indy. Many of their bikes had been turned into streetfighters, and not one of them had any chicken strips left.

At Cool Springs Park

Love that headlight!

Right to the edge

50 from Rowlesburg to Grafton was incredible! Left, right, left, right, repeat. We were about 10 minutes out from Cool Springs Park when I noticed a sportbike on my tail waiting to pass me. Now we had been going a brisk pace (Central-NJ group ride style), and when we left Cool Springs Park that group of guys was still hanging around eating and drinking - my first thought that it was the guys we saw earlier, and they must be tearing up the road at an insane pace. Waved the first guy by, and saw that he was not part of that group. Two others went by, including a guy on a loaded Concours14. They passed Jim in short order, and were out of sight in just a few turns.

We stopped for lunch in Grafton at Biggie's, where we had some pretty good chicken sandwiches outside watching the traffic go by. The VA bikers passed and waved as we were finishing up.

We stayed on 50 for a while, then took a couple connector roads to pick up WV20. As I mentioned before, we had been keeping a good pace, with Jim really throwing that Road King around. More than once I heard those floorboards scrape. WV20 was more intense than much of 50, and the marking for the turns was more generous. What would be a 20-mph marked turn on 50 was marked 30-mph on WV20. I had been leading since we left Biggie's, but waved Jim by after a bit on WV20. The next turn we come up to was the first 15-mph marked one we'd seen, and as Jim got into the uphill right-hander he began scraping...a lot. Then I noticed him wiggle and stand the bike up a bit before settling it down again. When we talked later on he thought he had levered the rear off the ground for a second, and had a serious "Oh Shit!" moment. Props to him for not pulling over for a bit after that incident - I might have needed a moment to compose myself.

Some construction on 20

Cooling off on 20 for a bit

Eventually we connected with 7, and that took us over the bridge to Ohio at New Martinsville. OH536 is a twisted roller-coaster of a road. Lots of elevation changes, in quicker succession than the roads in WV. Signage was vague at best for turns, maybe just a left arrow with no mph guidance. What fun! For the first part of the road we were behind a guy on his Sportster, and he was keeping a great pace and riding very smoothly. When we pulled off into his driveway it was clear why he seemed to know the road so well.

536 connected us to 78, and we stopped in Woodsfield to decide how much farther to go and by which roads. I had booked hotels in both Columbus and Dayton, figuring we would see where we were late in the day and cancel one of them. We had just finished 300 miles of twisties and were starting to feel pretty beat. Jim's Road King weights nearly twice what the Multi does, so I'm sure he was doubly tired. We knew we didn't want to do another 100 miles of something like 536, but we weren't ready for the interstate and 78 didn't look too crazy. We briefly considered making the run all the way to Indy that night, but quickly dismissed that.. We decided to make it to Dayton, taking 78 for a while longer unless it got crazy.

78 turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. Very little traffic, pleasant sweepers, and easy to make time on. As a matter of fact, in just one hour on 78 we had beaten the GPS estimate by 35 minutes! We passed OH555, the infamous "triple-nickel", but that would be for another day. 78 to 13 to, finally, I-70.

While gassing up just before getting on I-70, we were joined by a couple of H-D guys from PA on their way to Indy. We chatted for a bit, and after the one guy left the pump we heard the unmistakable sound of a bike hitting the ground. When I looked over, I was surprised to see gasoline gushing out of his tank and all over his bike, and the ground. They had gotten the bike picked up before Jim and I could get there, and it turned out he had not put his gas cap back on when leaving the pumps. Probably not a good idea to pour gas over a hot engine.

I broke out the beaded seatcover for the first time on this trip, and we hit the interstate. Jim was in front on I-70, and I was starting to get pretty tired. My knees were sore, and my neck was pretty sore as well. At one point Jim passed a truck that was in the right lane by pulling in between two left-lane trucks, one behind and one in front of him. He was hemmed in on 3 sides by 18-wheelers, and he later said that was probably not the best decision, the long day to blame. Nothing happened, and it wasn't a big deal, but it's interesting to note that you certainly don't ride better or smarter when you're tired at the end of a long day. (I'm not without sin on this account - watch for my much-more-boneheaded move at the end of Saturday's ride)

On I-70 in Ohio

With 200 miles on Wednesday, we did about 480 miles today, only 100 of them on the Interstate. (I took this pic Friday morning before we left, which explains the 7:05am time)

We "freshened up" and made the walk across the street to a place called Tumbleweed's, where we enjoyed a late dinner and cheap beer.

I had been toying with the idea of a motorcycle trip to the Alps lately, and that's something I would rather do with someone I know. Since Jim and I weren't at each other's throats yet, and our riding styles meshed, I put the question to him.

Me - "Have you ever thought about riding in the Alps?"
Jim - "Only from when I go to bed at night until I wake up in the morning."

We spent the rest of dinner talking about how that might work.