Solo Ride to Delaware

A couple of months ago, my sister Jennifer texted an image of my niece Josie's school calendar with all the dates highlighted when a babysitter was needed. If you know me, I'm not good with kids, even family, I mean, I get along, but I don't understand them. Anyway, extremely mild feelings of guilt led me to make the decision to go out in October to babysit. I had written a letter to Josie asking her how cool it would be if her aunt rode her bike all that way. For sure a memory for both of us, right?

I watched the weather for weeks. Then days. I made arrangements to rent a car to drive out just in case, but I really wanted to ride my motorcycle there. Heck, it's more reliable than my car, cheaper on gas, "funner", and I had a whole day to get there. The weather ended up with no calls for rain, so I cancelled the car reservation and was determined to ride!

So I did. I packed and loaded my bike the night before. It was 45 degrees when I left at about 8:30am. on Tuesday, October 8th. I layered on the clothes and leathers, and Bryon had installed the wires for heated glove liners. I had hoped to leave by 8, but actually was getting on the bike when I realized I had forgotten to put on my chaps! LOL, Bryon ran in and got them, I put them on and was ready. Bryon took a couple of photos as I left. I've always traveled this country by myself, so this was no biggie, and much looked forward to.




I didn't take a lot of photos along the way there. I was riding 100 mile stints - and boy was it nice out there! The weather warmed up a bit into the 60s; it was perfect riding. My bike, Poseidon, loved the cool air in his carb. We were a team.

One of my first breaks was at a ubiquitous Sheetz for come cold coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Coffee good, sandwich shitty. As I was eating, an older woman approached me and asked if that was my bike. I said yes. She went on to say she used to ride with her husband and enjoyed it. She wished me well on my journey.

I journeyed on US-422 all the way from home to Ebcnsburg, PA where I caught US-22 west. I thought 422 might be boring because we travel it often, but it was okay, and who cares! I was free! I took US-22 for what was longer than I thought it would be; a four-lane highway too. It intersects with I-99 which I followed south. My goal was to get on US-30, the Lincoln Highway, at about Bedford, so that I could ride Bryon's favorite winding mountain roads that begin at about Breezewood by the turnpike.

One of the things we always wanted to do was stop at the Mountain House Bar on US-30; the view is supposed to be amazing as it sits at the top of a mountain. It does overlook a wide valley that is formed in a curve. I didn't go in, just stopped for photos. You can see in the one that the elevation is 2123 feet. The place sneaks up on you as you come up the hill heading east, but is on the right side; still it's easy to pass as it's also on a curve to the left and goes back downhill.

On I went. From the stop above to Gettysburg, I rode straight through, charging my phone along the way. I wanted to go through Gettysburg to stop at a bakery/coffee shop I had seen on all our trips there, but never stopped at. I get there and it's gone. Closed. Nonexistent. Boohoo! That's when I found out that my charging cord had been touching my pipe and burned into the wire (but still worked). 

Gettysburg on US-30

 It was from here that my directions were on roads I'd never ridden nor places I'd ever seen. I like that shit. The route I took continued in Pennsylvania for quite a while, then dipped into Maryland. I was going to end up on US-1 east, and that was to take me right past Eisenhower's Chesapeake Harley-Davidson. I plugged along and found it. I suppose it was about 6:30pm when I got there and just getting dark. I bought toys for the boys (chips, glasses, tees), and when I exited the store at 7pm, it was dark out. I still had a ride ahead of me, and has to get on US-40 to keep in the right direction.

I made it to my sister's place just before 8:30pm.
Poseidon and I did it; our longest solo trip.

Poseidon

Copper, this is all he does.

The next day Josie was off from school, so my job babysitting began. I also had to babysit the dogs and the cat (not really the cat, but the dogs, yes). One of the goals I thought would be nice was to take Josie somewhere, as I decided to rent a car while I was there. But my sister was a "turd in the punchbowl" (which Josie thought was hilarious and had to tell her mom what I called her) by scheduling a dentist appointment at 1:30pm. Ugh. Well, there was no chance of going anywhere and Josie wouldn't have anyway as she likes her home and neighborhood best. My brother-in-law, Waylen, came home and decided to stay awake to take Josie to the dentist. There wasn't much babysitting to do at this point

So before the dentist, we played on the trampoline! I posted a cool video of us jumping around on FB, and it was nice to be a kid. But boy, that is hard work! I started getting hot, had to pee almost immediately from the jumping, and so had to exit the trampoline. I came back for more, but the neighbor kids started showing up. I didn't even think about 

 neighbors - I had assumed wrong that it would be the two of us spending time together. 

We went to Dunkin for coffee and donuts before the dentist. After that, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch. Josie at her first buffalo wing in mild sauce and liked it! Now that's a red-blooded American kid right there!

Thursday Josie had school, so Waylen and I decided to ride our bikes down to Rommel Harley-Davidson in Smyrna. It was yet another beautiful day, and the ride was less than an hour there. The women running the apparel section were very friendly. I'm told that a huge HD store is to be built, one of the biggest ever. 

In the afternoon, I waited on the front porch for Josie when her school bus came along. She wasn't there long when she asked if she could go to Bella's house. Yeah, whatever. She left; I read my book. We went to dinner that night at the Metro Bar. 

Friday, Josie was off of school again; I really thought there was a chance of us driving to southern Delaware to see the Great Cypress Swamp. Nope. She wouldn't leave. After some words of "encouragement", it was useless. Waylen wanted to get seafood for lunch, so we drove to Chesapeake City, a small old inlet town. We ate at the Chesapeake Inn which has a bunch of outdoor seating and a bar on the marina. Again, a beautiful day and the food was excellent.

Well, Saturday rolled around and we just had to go to the Amish Market for their best-in-the-world donuts. Seriously, just go to Middletown for the donuts on Saturday morning. The cream-filled are like melting clouds of fluffiness, and the lemon was overloaded with lemon, and oh boy, the blueberry fritter is better than blueberry pie!!! They look ordinary, but are above and beyond.

Jennifer suggested we take Josie to Rehoboth Beach on the Atlantic. I had suggested Henlopen a little more north because it didn't have all the touristy shops. We ended up at the touristy shops in Rehoboth. And the ocean. It was packed! It's a nice place; we had been there in the past on an off day in winter once when nobody was around. When in Rome...so we ate some fried fish and chips from some wanna-be British place. 

Then the beacon of light from a gaming room called out with the words "Skee-Ball". It was game on! That's my favorite. You got two plays for a quarter, so I put in a dollar. We didn't think it would end, and then ended up putting in more money.  Jennifer played, and Josie tried and was the only one to get the ball into the 100 hole. Lucky kid. THEN a woman gave us a bunch of points because she didn't want the cheap toys. When Josie saw what she could get we had to play a little more, and got more than enough points to get the Whoopie Cushion!

Next we went to the water. An endless ocean is a thing of beauty and wildness. I could sit for hours just staring at and listening to the water move. The colors were like the ones I painted over the past winter. Nature is embalmed with glory.

The seagrasses were drying out and windswept. The horizon was low and long. Geese flew out yonder and we played in the waves.

At the beach there are stands with showers to wash off your body and feet. Josie was supposed to press the button for the foot level spout, and hit the overhead one instead raining down water all over! It was funny! After rinsing off, I got some chocolate custard at Kohr's, and Josie got candy at the Candy Factory.

We walked around for a bit going into some shops. Found books, earrings, jerky, and t-shirts.

I found two of my favorite guys who graciously posed for selfies: Zoltar and Poseidon. 

Saturday night: I packed my bags and loaded my bike so I could take off at 8am. I love my sister and niece and bro-in-law. But I was ready to go home.

Sunday morning: We ate leftover donuts with fresh Starbucks coffee. It was cold out as expected. I dressed up and mounted the horse. Jennifer woke up Josie so she could say goodbye. As I was backing my bike out of the garage, I told Josie that I loved her. I backed out more and said, "I'm going on an adventure, Charlie!" and she giggled (we had watched and laughed together over the Charlie the Unicorn video).

I got on the street and waved goodbye. And that was it. 

I made a route to get me home quicker, and ended up getting home in 10 hours. My route took me through Lancaster, PA, where I had never been before so that was cool. It also took me to Hershey, PA where I had gone as a child with my grandmother Ruth. I took nice breaks at a Starbucks and McDonalds, as well as at a Giant grocery store where I had a sub, banana, and pomegranate tea. It was at the grocery that another older woman approached me and said it was nice to see me riding, as she used to ride when she was younger. She was nice and wished me well. There are good people on the road. I made it to I-80 who knows when, but I hightailed it into the setting sun and made it home when it was still light out. I missed Bryon and the cats and our awesome same shit, different day amazing life and home. 

Until the next ride...

~ Holly

A few more pics from the road.

P.S. I always collect a mug on my trips; this time I got two.

Fun in Wexford, PA

I. Love. To. Travel! 

And close by places are just as cool as the far away ones. So check this out:

We (Hammer, Tiny, Meanie, and me) rode our bikes to Wexford, Pennsylvania on Sunday, September 8th. I called it the Gravity Hill Ride because we went to yet another Gravity Hill. But...we also went to a place called the Fountain of Youth. Neither of these things were easy to find.

We met at Starbucks in Hermitage, and started on PA-18 south, following that to PA-208 through Volant. We followed the signs for route US-19 as we needed to go south on there. Now you can catch US-19 however you like, out of Mercer for example. But don't take it too far or you'll end up in Maggie Valley, NC as it goes all the way through there and beyond!

It was a really nice ride on 19; we hadn't traveled that section before. It goes through Cranberry, PA first. You go past I-79, and continue to Wexford. It becomes rich suburban shopping and eating, really nice of course. To start the fun, you need to turn left on Brown Road off of US-19. It comes to a T in the road - turn right, this is McKinney Road. Here's where shit gets crazy because of a lack of road name signs. You'll go past a golf course or something and at the top of a hill is an abrupt stop sign. 

A) If you go downhill from there, you'll see a Y in the road - left downhill more takes you to an indoor ice skating rink parking lot; right uphill takes you around to the other side of the rink. Thing is, you won't realize that you accelerated up GRAVITY HILL if you go right. It begins right there at the split in the road! 

B) If you turn right at the stop sign, that is Kummer Road and it takes you to the FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. I did not know that at the time (no road name), so I took us left downhill, and kept on going left to, yes, the skating rink parking lot. We regrouped with the Google map and decided to visit the Fountain. 

The path to the Fountain of Youth. 

The Fountain of Youth is a really interesting place tucked away in a hillside hidden by the plants along the road. We missed it going downhill and turned around at the bottom, went back up and pulled off into the gravel parking. NOTE: It is a deep drop off with at least two layers of pavement exposed; pull almost to the end and it is better.  You can barely see it. Once you find and walk down the treacherous path it stops at a crick that you must cross if you want to get closer. It's worth it! You'll see there are rocks to walk on to cross and then you have to go up hill a short way. The space in front of the entrance is wide open. 

It became an instant photorama! What a neat place. Molded into the head stone is the name of the place, and it's well built. Here at the entrance it looks so dark inside. Click on the linked text above to see more info about it. When you go inside there is a framed rectangular hole in the back wall, and in there is a long, moist tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, or at least as far as you can see, are layers of what looks like shale damp and dripping with water. This is NOT a drinking fountain so don't go into this thirsty. Also, you will not de-age or lose wrinkles, nor heal arthritis and gout.

On top of the structure is a cement dome that protects the inside stone structure. There is also a half-moon short wall built into the hill above. 

 Here are some more pictures. Some are of the inside which was green with a thin mossiness. It's really cool in there both by temperature and construction. It's a dome inside and there is a fire pit in the middle of the ground area.

I climbed the hill above the fountain and discovered that it leveled off with a walking/bicycling path going both left and right. I also discovered a baby holly tree!

We left there and went back to the hilltop I mentioned on McKinney and turned right. Down we went then uphill on the Gravity Hill going instead to the North Park Water Tower. It's located on the big hill across from the ice skating rink. I figured it was something we could climb for a view, but instead it was a neat structure that was closed off. It was neat to see anyway, and the graffiti was inspiring (at least to me). 

You feel like a hero when you battle any of the Gravity Hill hills. I didn't get pictures of this except in this video of Meanie. Here he is coming down that hill I explained that splits as a Y. He rides past me with his motorcycle on, stops at the bottom, turns off his motorcycle, then gives it a few steps until the hill pulls him up and forward on it's own! If you have never been to a gravity hill, do yourself a favor, go to one. It's amazing and funny and thrilling. If you go on motorcycles, watch out for the speed it takes you. Also, you don't have to turn your motorcycle or car off, just put it in neutral. Take anything that will roll, even water, and watch it go uphill.

Then, go find food!!! We planned on eating at Stack'd right there in Wexford. It's in a plaza at the intersection of Wallace Road and US-19. Ze burgers are delicious! It was a take it easy ride on nice roads at about 135 miles round trip. Get riding, get stack'd, and get FREE!!!

~ Holly

Randall Pugh Poker Run, Hosted by Red Knights #7

We don't often get to go on poker runs for different fundraisers unless they are on Sundays. This year we were in town for the 2nd Annual Randall S. Pugh Poker Run hosted by the Chapter 7 Red Knights motorcycle club. This is a fundraiser in Mr. Pugh's name that puts the funds raised into scholarships for people who want to train for emergency medical services (EMS) work including firefighters and EMTs. Boy, do we needs these kind of folks!

Who hasn't been in need of help or know someone who's life was saved because of the trained paramedics who were there during the emergency? We are lucky to live in a nation where such help is continuously available due to the people who make it their calling.

Tiny, Goldilocks, Meanie, and I rode over for the run, which started at the Lane Life Trans behind Lane Funeral Home on Mahoning Avenue in Austintown, Ohio. Lots of bikes were there, but I didn't get the final count. We signed up for the run which included a dinner later in the day. There were opportunities to buy tickets for raffles and the run t-shirts. I bought tickets and then forgot what they were for! That didn't really matter as the fundraiser was the main reason to be there. And we could not have asked for better weather.









Meanie got a t-shirt. Tiny bought gun raffle tickets, I think. Oh boy, it's humid in the house tonight, and my brain can't think too well to write!


At about 10:30-40 am, the bikes started up, rolled out in a roar, and turned west on Mahoning Avenue. The first leg of the route was nice and long, but not too long. We rode down some roads of names I have no idea. All I know is that we finally rolled in through downtown Warren and you know how it goes at intersections - we just keep going and the cars at the crossroads just have to accept the entertainment!

We all agreed that the leading and blocking for the group was done perfectly, and safely, and we'd like to thank the Red Knights and their help for putting it all together - never an easy task.

I believe the first stop was on the east side of the Mosquito Lake causeway at the Yellow Dog Saloon & Grill in Mecca, Ohio. You can see from the pictures below that the day was partly cloudy. I recognized a lot of folks from individuals to members of different clubs.

I was hungry when we got there. There was a pulled pork sandwich meal available for $7 with the proceeds going to the poker run fundraiser. This stop was also the 2nd card draw. I had started off with a 2 of spades back at the start site, so it was already looking bleak for me. Then I drew an 8 of clubs or something and I swallowed my loser sorrows with each bite of my pork sandwich and potato salad.

We were asked to follow some folks to the next stop, and when we went outside a whole bunch of bikes were started and ready to go. We got on our bikes and got in line so we could follow along. That leg of the journey was a good long one! Man, I think it was route 46 or something. I'm so terrible with roads if I'm not the road captain! Seriously.

Well, anyway, it was a beautiful ride through the countryside.

Flying like eagles, we landed at the Crow's Nest bar in Ashtabula, Ohio. That's a really nice place. We hadn't been to either Yellow Dog of Crow's Nest before, so the new experiences were appreciated.  Fast Freddie from 93.3 the Wolf was on the run too and took this sweet picture of us!

But the old experiences called out from the Lake Erie shore on the wind. Soon I could hear Tiny saying that Geneva-on-the-Lake was less than ten miles away; why not get chili dogs? Well, with it being so dang hot and humid, I said let's get going if we are going! We were quickly on our way to Eddie's Grill in GOTL.

I figured we wouldn't find parking, but we did. And ordering wasn't too bad and the food didn't take too long. Here's a tip: if you're going to order a footlong chili dog, order two, that way you won't have to live with regrets all day long like Hammer had too on our ride to Ohiopyle.

I had a dog with ketchup and relish, Goldilocks had something and the boys had chili dogs. All I know is that my hot fudge sundae from the DQ next door went down cool and easy while I was waiting on my dog. Remember too: dessert first. Meanie remarked on the signs that said: Do not carry children on your shoulders, but didn't specify that it's because there are low ceiling fans in the place! That's would be a bad day at the beach for sure.

We were able to follow the directions on our own to the third stop, Crossroads Bar & Grill in Southington, Ohio. Meanie took our photo there, then we went inside to draw our next cards. I don't even remember what it was, but I'm sure you could see my my my my poker face (ha!). We cooled off inside for a bit as did most everyone, had something to drink, and then we left to get gas in Meanie's bike as it ran out and he turned on the reserve a few miles from Crossroads. We like to run the gas out of our bikes as often as possible. 

We made our way to the last stop and ending point, the Ice House Inn in Austintown. The place was pretty cool, yet another we still had not been too. All the bikes were parked around back, and you can see a lovely sun shining through intermittent clouds. Who knew all hell was to break loose.

The food was great as far as I'm concerned: fresh cut watermelon, brownies and cookies, buffalo chicken dip, butter parsley potatoes (on which I put my chicken dip), and well, there was other food, but I got hooked on those mentioned. The bar was open so you could buy drinks too. 

The place was packed! We bought Chinese auction tickets, and waited for the drawings.

I won the Spider Man backpack set for my niece, Josie!!! I had to wear it home. 

In the rain.

The torrential, storming, gusting, hateful rain and wind that was like living on the dark side of the rainbow! 

Yes, just about 7pm the storm was really there, and I had been saying we should go, but no, Meanie, living up to his name, said that Tiny had to stay to try to win one of the guns in the raffle. Ugh.

We stayed. He didn't win. And I made a B-line for my bike. The wind had picked up so heavily, and drops of rain were falling sideways. The black clouds suddenly blocked out the sun, and we were all on our bikes and pulling out when it hit hard. 

There was no turning back once we were on route 46, and the wind pushed our bikes sideways. We turned onto County Line Road, Meanie already ahead because he had the chance to take off before us. Branches and leaves were scattered all over, and the rain was pushing sideways with the wind blinding us. From that point all the way to the Dunkin Donuts on Salt Springs Road, we travelled in no more than 2nd gear. Even cars were pulled over, but for us on bikes, that would be more dangerous than plugging along. It was indeed, we all agreed, the worst rain we had ever ridden in. And we've gotten it pretty good in our travels, but this was unparalleled. 

We got inside the DD and water just poured off of us AND into our boots that were already boats. We all stood by the entrance doors just dripping and not moving so that we didn't make their entire floor slippery. And then we started feeling the air conditioning that made us feel like ice cubes! The kind woman working there offered us free cups of coffee which we accepted but did offer to pay for.

We waited out the storm. 

It left us a path home strewn with trees, leaves, power outages in Girard and Liberty (including a live wire down on Belmont that we rode over!). Oh my. Girard felt and looked like a post-apocalyptic world.

We all made it home.

After parking the bikes, we hung our leathers to dry, set the boots out and removed the insoles. Hung our gloves by the chimney with care - no, not really but a fire would have been rather nice.

All in all it was a really nice day, and well organized and run poker run for a great educational cause, and we put 170 miles on our bikes. Good luck, and thank you, to all the future people who answer the call to learn to help others and then answer the calls to their ambulances and fire trucks and emergency service places of work! We need you and appreciate you. 

To learn more about the world of EMS, click here. 

~ Holly

a.k.a. Stitchblade, Mama Stitch, Stitch