Ohio's Tail of the Dragon, Rt. 536

If you haven't already traveled Ohio's version of the Tail of the Dragon, you may just like it. We've been on vacation all week getting things done at home, putting inventory data into spreadsheets, paperwork, making patches, moving curios and motorcycle memorabilia into the bar room, and otherwise freezing our asses off in the cold (tonight is the coldest at -7 degrees!).

So, I got Bryon up and about and out the door at 11:45 AM. We headed south on Rt. 7 basically, skipping around Youngstown on I-680 (with a stop at Starbucks for road coffee). Rt. 7 south of Boardman is a great ride, nice road, probably even nicer in summer than this ruthless January day.

Bryon didn't know where we were going - I just said a road trip south. I had to get out of the house after 6 days of basically staying home. So, out we went and we got down to Route 30, the famed Lincoln Highway, and had to follow that east to stay on Rt. 7 until it dropped south again.

It has been a while since we'd been down that way, and I knew we were in for a 300 mile trip. Well, that's what happened. As we drove along the Ohio River and the power plants and the old coal and energy towns, the sun shone bright through the blank trees and enormous steel bridges. Then there it was, a billboard for Neidengard's Harley-Davidson, the oldest one in Ohio. Yes, we went, about 8 miles off route, but worth it. It's a nice store with nice people, lots of great shirts if you are inclined to collect them. They had the new 115th Anniversary blue denim Street Glide on the floor, and Bryon really liked the color, plus the eagle paint job on the fairing.

We bought a few cool shirts and poker chips, then took off to Rt. 7 again. About half way to Hannibal, I revealed to Bryon that we were going to the Dragon. He's not a big traveller like I am, so I like to have surprises so he sees the joy in going places like I do. Well, the Dragon is no joke!! You barely make it past the sign for Hannibal, and there's the Rt. 536 sign. You can only turn right (if headed south), so do it, then take care! LOL, seriously, the turns are immediate and they parallel huge drop offs into lovely ravine's that are best viewed from the top!

Left, and right, and left, and right, and up and down, and up and down - we were like, "are you kidding?" when we saw the sign that drivers beware of a school bus stop. I was a bus driver and there's no way I'd take a full size bus on that road - no way. Yet it was so beautiful!!! The vistas of distant hills and deep valleys were worth it. There were many houses along the road, farms, and cows.

Obviously we made it, and boy, Rt. 78 is beautiful too with longer curves and milder hills. But we headed back to Rt. 7, turned north to finish the trip, and crossed over the huge blue steel bridge into Moundsville, WV. From there, we followed Rt. 2 north; it wasn't as nice at Rt. 7. FYI: if you go this route and see places called cafes, they are gambling cafes, not restaurants, so we ended up at an Arby's on Rt. 30 when we got north off Rt. 2. It was about 7:30 PM, so we just said fuck it and got on Rt. 11 north instead of 7 again. We got home just after 8:30, and well, I went straight for my pajamas.

Now this night will end with prepping patches I embroidered all week (I know, I know, it was supposed to be a vacation, but I got to take care of my people!), and I guess I'll have some decaf and read for a while too, and forget that tomorrow is the last day of this staycation. It's been good, and much appreciated. We'll be back shortly to begin serving the bikers of our two valleys again, and enjoy this interesting life.

~ Holly, a.k.a. Stitchblade