Last week, Grace and I decided to pack up the Harley and take a 'quick' 1400 mile trip down south. Well, at least south of the Mason Dixon Line! This was the longest bike trip we have taken since we started riding a few years ago. We have done a few over-nighters, but always tried to plan them around good weather and those that were fairly-close-to-home jaunts. This trip required us to brave the elements, although we made a significant investment (lots of money) for rain gear for each of us. The purchased worked, as it fended off the rain!
We left early last Thursday morning and as we maneuvered our way south to Port Jervis through Route 209 in PA, the temperature rose to over 100 degrees. We quickly found out that no matter how fast you go on a motorcycle, it doesn't get any cooler. Picture riding headlong into a giant hair dryer for about 8 hours. But, through frequent stops and much water refreshment, we made it to York without issue.
While in PA we made a tour of the Harley-Davidson plant.
It was my second go-around and saw many different areas and production locations than previous. It was a great tour and while I would love to have my name associated with the building of these bikes, I do not envy those plant workers who have to endure such extreme conditions. It was incredibly loud and the temperatures in the plant approached the high 90s. They earn their pay!We left there and headed off down the street to Gettysburg and spent the afternoon experiencing the horrors of that 3-day event back in 1863. We took a guided bus tour and I think we learned more in that afternoon than we did when we studied this in school.
The next leg of our trip took us to Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. Here, we made a stop at the Skyline Caverns - where we saw one of the only places in the world to have clusters of shimmering white calcium carbonate crystals called anthodites. They are now a protected by the federal government.Then it was off to Sky Line Drive and then south to the Blue Ridge
Parkway. We experienced some spectacular sights and these were made more eventful being on the Harley - no 'cage' around us to diminish the experience! Climbing to over 3800 feet we saw sights that have to be seen to believe. Hundreds of miles of constant 'twisties' and elevation changes kept the ride a challenge, but what a blast we had making the run.
We closed our trip with an overnight stay in Grantville PA and an afternoon for Grace to make use of the pool. The trip home went well as we stayed ahead of the raindrops.
