Day One, Sunday July 13, 2008

Not wanting to make this journey alone, I joined up with Erik Heilvei;, a.k.a. Duc Dude, a fellow member of the Mac Pac Eating and Wrenching Society and Jon Burt, a Chicago area Mac Pac'r. We are meeting Jon approximately 200 miles south of Chicago in Salem, IL on Monday evening. Erik, along with Earl Bare (another Mac Pac'r) came up with the route and nightly lodging stops. Erik emailed us the the Garmin files so we could download them to our GPS units.
I met Erik at the west bound Pennsylvania Turnpike Valley Forge travel plaza at 7:00 AM. I was supposed to be there at 6:30 AM, but anyone who knows me, knows that I am always fashionably late. Not a good way to start the trip.
The first leg of the trip was somewhat boring as we had to travel the PA Turnpike for approximately 150 miles when we got off at the Fort Littleton exit. We started our off-the-beaten-path journey on Route 522. Better than the turnpike, but not a perfect road. Things got way better when we crossed the West Virginia border once we hit Route 9. The elevation changes combined with the tight twisties and sweeping turns bumped up the fun factor a notch. (Keep in mind that I am pulling my custom trailer through all these turns. I had no problem keeping up with Erik on the majority of the roads. I couldn't believe that my bike was handling as well as it was pulling that thing!) We got to Route 29 and proceeded to enjoy that for a good way. Once we hit Route 50 things started getting WAYYYY better around Claysville, WV. We stopped in Gormania, WV for fuel and grabbed Route 90 that runs along the North Branch Potomac River. 90 was more of a long, sweeping curve kind of road that had some beautiful scenery. Just north of Blackwater Falls State Park, we picked up Route 219 for what I would call the best twisties so far. We had to travel Route 33 for a bit which was uneventful but the last leg of our day more than made up for it. Route 119 from Weston to Ripley was by far the best of the day. I still have a hard time believing that my bike could handle SO well pulling the trailer! We stopped for the night and had a gourmet dinner at the Ponderosa Steak House. I had the Prime Rib which was great by Ponderosa standards. I can honestly say that I not only survived the first day, I LOVED IT!!!