Day 48 - Goodbye Urban Sprawl and Say Hello To The Mountains Again!

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Today we bid the North a fond farewell and officially return to the South. We're have about 2 weeks left to go on this trip and we are starting to feel like we are in the home stretch. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we headed back north and west out of Delaware on into Maryland. We stayed far enough north to just skirt around northern Baltimore. I have been to Baltimore several times, and while I really like the downtown area, it's not really great for motorcycles. So we will save Baltimore for some other time.

Most of the roads out of Delaware and through Maryland were about the same. We mostly followed Liberty Heights Ave/ MD-26 from Baltimore to Frederick. Mostly it was suburban secondary roads with lots of fast food, gas stations, car dealers, and strip malls. Nothing too bad, but nothing too exciting. Traffic was good, and we made good time. Northern Baltimore seemed like really nice, middle class neighborhoods, a welcome relief after Newark and Trenton. Once we were past Frederick, MD the scenery started to become more rural, and the mountains were becoming visible in the distance. In Frederick, we jumped on US-340 and followed it all the way to the Front Royal entrance to Shenandoah National Park.

Along the way on US-340 we actually crossed briefly into West Virginia and found ourselves at the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. We stopped for a bit to at least check it out, and what we found was a Visitors Center on one side of US-340 and the 1800's Lower Town of Harpers Ferry down the hill on the shores of the Potomac on the other. Since there was virtually no parking in the old Lower Town, there were shuttle buses that ran every 15 minutes from the Visitors Center to the various sites and down into Lower Town. We hadn't realized Harpers Ferry would be here, so we didn't really plan to stop and it looked like taking the shuttle bus and exploring the various buildings and museums in the old Lower Town would take a few hours. So we decided to stamp our passports at the Visitors Center, and ride the bike down through the town and see what it all looked like. In retrospect, it would have been fun to check it all out, but we didn't have the time as it was close to 3:00 and we still had a ways to go to Shenandoah. Unfortunately, we weren't able to even stop for pictures as the road was very narrow and steep, so we settled for a few pictures of the Visitors Center.

The rest of the ride up US-340 was fairly straightforward until it went from 4-lane back to 2-lane. At that point, the traffic began to slow down. There seemed to be a lot of 18-wheelers and several tour buses ahead of us slowing everything down. But eventually it went back to 4-lane for a little while, and I was able to put the 18-wheelers and the buses behind us. Now the 18-wheelers did not worry me much as I knew I would lose them as soon as I turned on Skyline Drive. The buses were more a source of concern. But all was clear when we turned onto Skyline Drive and stopped at the Shenandoah National Park entrance sign to take our pictures. As we were getting back on the bike, we were evidently just a little too slow, as a tour bus ended up in front of us. As we reached the ticket booth, there was only one open and the bus was working it out with the ranger as we waited. Now 2 more buses pulled up behind us and they were obviously part of the same group, because someone got out of the buses behind us and got their stuff worked out with the ranger also. It didn't take too long, but we did look a little small with our tiny motorcycle between one bus in front and two behind. When we got to the ticket booth, I showed him my "Old People's Pass" and he let us through.

By this point, we were a caravan of Bus, Motorcycle, Bus, Bus and the view front and back was not too good. So we pulled off at the first overlook and took a few pictures while the 3 buses sped ahead. A few minutes later we were at the Visitors Center and sure enough, all 3 buses had stopped. Fortunately, the buses were full of children who were not interested in the Visitors Center, but had formed an enormous line to the restrooms. As we looked around the Visitors Center, we peeked in the movie room, and some guy there said he had just requested the movie and it was about to start. So we pulled up a chair and watched the obligatory 20 minute move about Shenandoah National Park. By the time we were done with the movie and went back outside, the buses had departed and all was right with the world again.

From that point, we just road along the Skyline Drive, stopping at most of the scenic overlooks. We met another couple of bikers and their wives, one had a Harley and the other had a brand new Goldwing. We talked a while about riding and trips and retirement before we headed back onto the road again. Riding skyline Drive is different than other mountain roads. Skyline drive is about 105 miles long, but it only has 4 entrances. The reason is that the entire road is at 2400 to 3100 ft elevation and the entrances are down in the valleys at low elevations with roads that rise up to meet Skyline Drive at the Park Entrance. So, while there are lots of twists and turns on the road, there are not the wild rises and drops in elevation which makes for a very relaxing easy ride.

While we were riding along, we went past an overlook that had a beautiful 1929 Model A Ford Pickup parked there. As we stopped at the next overlook, the Model A drove past just as we were getting back on the road, so there was only one car between us and the Model A. Now even though the hills are not huge on Skyline Drive, there are some hills and I could see that the Model A was struggling to make it up and had slowed from 35 mph to about 20 mph. The idiot behind him and in front of us pulled right up on his back bumper, tailgating him as if that would speed him up. He was going as fast as he could! At the next overlook, the Model A pulled off and the car sped buy. I pulled off also as I wanted to get a picture of the Model A at the overlook, but as he slowed down, he didn't stop, he just kept slowing down. And I kept slowing down too, wondering when he was going to stop. Suddenly I realized he wasn't going to stop, he had just slowed down so I would pass him before he started heading downhill. I finally got the message and just waved at him as I sped buy. I could see him in my rearview mirror as I headed down the hill. It was probably best that I just stay out of his way as Model A's have mechanical brakes and don't handle particularly well in turns.

As we left the Model A behind us, we noticed a little General Store, so we stopped and got a couple of drinks and noticed they had some good t-shirts, much better than the Visitors Center. So we picked them up and made our way to the Thornton Gap Entrance at Mile 32 which leads us out to Luray and our hotel for the night. When I booked the hotel, all I could get was 2-double beds so we were expecting a cramped night, but I was able to get him to swap to a single King so we are comfortable tonight. There is an Italian restaurant right next door so we were able to walk and the food was great! After dinner we walked into town and stopped at the Post Office to pick up what we hope to be our last box to send home. Tomorrow we visit Luray Caverns and probably some other caverns in the area.

260.0 Miles Today

7491.0 Miles Total

5.870 Gallons Today

187.802 Gallons Total

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