1st July 2008 – Montpelier to Saugerties, New York State.
After 30 miles or so on the Interstate we joined some very pretty roads through Vermont, Massachusetts and in to New York State. Highway 7 in Vermont is a particularly pretty road and all was going well until we discovered that Highways 7 in Vermont and New York State are two different roads going in two different directions and we’d taken the wrong one – oops! We’d ended up rather further south on the wrong side of the Hudson river than we’d intended but all was not lost as we were able to take the ‘Rip Van Winkle Bridge’ across (honest, that’s what it’s called) to reconnect (ish) with our original route. The other slight problem we encountered was a torrential downpour which only lasted around 10 minutes but which was enough to soak us through and cause our nice new £700 ($1400) worth of camera to fog up so badly that it won’t work!!! With luck it will dry out overnight if not we’ll be making a call to our insurers tomorrow.
2nd July 2008 – Saugerties to Lancaster Pennsylvania.
The camera survived – hoorah! It was raining again as we left (not hoorah!) so the camera stayed firmly in the top box until it had stopped and we’d lost the threatening clouds. After yesterday’s little faux pas we’d chosen a route that looked quite simply i.e. join the 209 heading south west and keep going; it started out okay and took us through the Delaware Gap National Recreation Area (a bit like a State Park) so the road was good and it was pretty. Unfortunately, shortly after leaving the park the roads turned to utter poop and we ended up going through a number of grubby, grotty mining towns that all appeared to be clones of one another – not good. To add to that, we chose to rely on our SatNav to get us to the motel we’d spotted that had a laundry and it took us right through the middle of Lancaster which is fairly big city and one of the roads we were supposed to take was closed so that was fun and games. As it turns out the motel is right next door to an outlet mall so it may just be that we go and console ourselves with a little retail therapy. Mileage to date 8221.
3rd July 2008 – Lancaster to Berlin, Maryland.
It was hot and sunny when we left this morning and we made our way across country on some of the more scenic Pennsylvanian roads, into Delaware and down to Haus of Trikes where we were met by Jeff and Edith who was in her gallery next door. Also there to meet us was one of their new dogs Jackson; they’ve just adopted two ex-racing greyhounds (well actually one who raced and one who didn’t make the race circuit) the other dog Luke was at home waiting for us when we arrived later in the day. Once Jeff had closed the shop we went back to the house before heading out to dinner to discuss plans for the weekend.
4th July (American Independence Day)– Berlin to Granite, Maryland.
As the weather forecast wasn’t great we decided that it was sensible for us all to travel up to Don & Brenda’s in Jeff’s Motorhome (they were taking it anyway so that the dogs could come along). The journey took around three hours as we were, thankfully, heading in the opposite direction to most of the traffic that was making for the beaches. We arrived early afternoon and were shown around Don & Brenda’s beautiful home which, is on the register of historic houses, where Don was born, and which has been in his family for generations – lovely. The garden wasn’t bad either, just 5 acres with a few other properties scattered around it, room for pet goats and a fishpond that would fill our back garden. As the day went on we were joined by a good number of people from the local community as well as some of Don’s work colleagues and members of Don & Brenda’s families. There was a barbeque (despite the rain we had during the evening), lots of food Brenda had prepared plus about five bagfuls of the famous Maryland crabs (that was an experience, ‘picking’ our first crab). Some of the neighbours who had joined us put on a firework display later in the evening and it was, all in all, a very good day.
5th July 2008 – Granite, Maryland.
Today was spent mooching around the local area and visiting some of Don’s relatives and neighbours. We’d already heard a lot about a car collection which belonged to Don’s late brother and he arranged for us to take a look and, boy was it worth it; there were something like eight large garages filled with all sorts of goodies including three Corvettes, a couple of Impala’s and even a 1930’s Rolls Royce complete with UK registration – fabulous. We also went along to take a look at a neighbours swimming pool that Don had spent a good number of months helping to dig out, it was wonderful, had it’s own diving board, slide and jets which allow you to swim without going anywhere (the owner is a tri-athlete who uses it for training purposes). From there it was back for yet more food and an early celebration of Edith’s birthday tomorrow.
6th July 2008 – Granite to Ocean City.
It was back in the motorhome and south to Jeff & Edith’s home this morning – we made very good time as, once again, we were heading against the traffic. After a light lunch, a shower and a rest, we went out to a nice, local restaurant to celebrate Edith’s birthday and we followed that by a very pleasant evening sitting in the hot tub on their first floor deck with a glass or two of wine. This is definitely the life.
7th July 2008 – Haus of Trikes.
We took the trike down to the workshop this morning to get the oil changed and to have a few other service items take care of. Unfortunately, Graham has managed to pick up a chest infection so the rest of the day was spent with him languishing in bed whilst I entertained myself at the house. Jeff and Edith have very kindly said that we can stay as long as we wish, it’s at times like this that you know who your friends really are.
8th July 2008 – Berlin, Maryland.
Graham was still pretty poorly this morning so stayed in bed for the day whilst I went out for ride on Edith’s trike with me riding and Jeff passenger (brave man). After Jeff had gone to the shop I did a little shopping before settling down on one of their five outside decks with a book and a cold drink making the most of the hot, humid and sunny weather (there was quite a thunderstorm later in the day though).
9th July 2008 – Berlin Maryland.
As Graham was obviously still unwell we decided that we should visit the local walk-in clinic to see if we could get him some antibiotics. The clinic was in Ocean City and from leaving ‘home’ it only took around an hour and a half for us to get there, for Graham to be seen and given a prescription for said tablets, not bad at all except that it cost $105 at the clinic and a further $37.50 for the prescription, still it’ll be worth it if it works and the travel insurance may well pay yet. Other than that it’s been another lazy day spent at the house.
10th July 2008 – Berlin, Maryland.
Although Graham was feeling a lot better this morning we decided to stay put for one more day before heading off to Gettysburg for a rally this weekend. Instead we borrowed one of the cars (again) and went to shop for some of the bits we wanted to take home with us, after a few hours of retail therapy we returned for another restful afternoon. As I mentioned we plan to head off to a rally this weekend, it looks a bit ‘knuckles down to the ground’ but it seems it’s worth a visit – we’ll find out tomorrow!
11th July 2008 – Berlin to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Well, it turns out the rally was worth a visit (not knuckles to the ground at all). This is a little more like an oversized U.K. rally in that you pay to get in to a central site where there are bands playing, silly games etc. but there are a whole host of vendors on site too. We spent a good few hours (and lots of money) on site yesterday and stayed to listen to the band, but it turned out to be a country music band which isn’t really our cup of tea, so we left and headed back to town where there are other ‘biker’ events on. The motel we’re staying in has it’s own underground bar and we decided to check that out – good decision. We were joined by a group of guys, one of whom had a guitar and proceeded to play all sorts of songs all evening (most of them risqué and some down right rude) and we were all expected to sing along (even Graham), it was great fun. We hope to meet up with Don & Brenda sometime tomorrow and will go back to the site to see what the next band has to offer.
12th July 2008 – Gettysburg.
We returned to the main rally site this morning and met up with Don, Brenda and their son-in-law Cliff all three of whom had entered their bikes in the bike show. We had a wander around the vendor sites together before heading for the hall where the bike show results were being announced and where Brenda’s trike took second place in the three-wheel class – well done Brenda. From there we went our separate ways and Graham and I took advantage of the pig roast that was being provided by the local fire-fighters before visiting some of the other vendor areas set up around the town. Included in the rally schedule was a ‘parade of chrome’ where any bikes/riders who wanted to could join a parade through the town watched by lots of the locals who were lining the streets to watch (very like the FIM rally parade of nations except that there’s only one national flag on display). We decided not to take part but to watch instead (it took 15 minutes for the bikes to pass us) and we did that from the entry to the main site so that we would be able to get somewhere to sit to watch the band this evening. The band was an (almost) all girl band called Mustang Sally, their music was on the rock side of country and, although we’d never heard of them, the reaction of the crowd and the fact that everyone else seemed to know the words to all of the songs, suggested that they were pretty famous over here. The band was followed by a really good firework display and a mass ride back in to town and a return to our motel.
13th July 2008 – Gettysburg.
Having spent 2 days as ‘bikers’ we decided to spend today as tourists. For those of you who don’t know, Gettysburg is the site of a pivotal three-day battle during the American civil war and there is a civil war trail you can either follow under your own steam or on a guided tour. Graham and I came here a number of years ago and followed the self-guided driving tour but it was pouring with rain the whole time so there were things we didn’t see and we didn’t get the whole story so, this time, we decided to take the guided tour which was very interesting and informative. Later in the day we visited the Gettysburg museum which is directly opposite our motel; unusually for an American museum it was not particularly well done and very cheesy. The weather forecast for today predicted thunderstorms for late in the day (it’s been really hot and humid the last few days) and by the time we left the museum it was pouring with rain so we returned to the motel and spent the evening watching the drag racing on T.V. and eating pizza.
14th July 2008 – Gettysburg to Grasonville, Maryland.
The rain had cleared by the time we woke this morning and it was overcast and warm but less humid. We left town and made our way back to Baltimore via a different route making first for ‘Bob’s BMW’ where we’d bought our summer riding suits last year. The idea was to buy some winter gloves and look at the Olympia winter suits (the summer ones are so good we’ve decided to try the winter ones), unfortunately, they don’t have any winter gloves in stock but they did have the suits and we’ve checked out our sizing and arranged that we will contact the salesman before we come over later in the year and he’ll put some aside for us. From there we went along to ‘Honda of Crofton’ who supplied the blue Goldwing to see Paul & Lorraine Zublionis who we’d stayed with for Thanksgiving last year; as it turns out they’re on vacation but we had a good chat with Derek the salesman and bought some new rain suits. We’ve crossed the Bay bridge and are staying at a motel overlooking the bay with a restaurant just across the road, that means we’re now only a short hop back to Haus of Trikes who should, by now, have our new tyre ready for fitting before we leave.
15th July 2008 – Grasonville to Berlin.
It was only a short run down to the shop this morning and we were there by midday so went along with Jeff, his son Gary and Gary’s wife Kirsten to lunch at a local restaurant. Unfortunately, our new tyre hasn’t arrived yet so we spent the afternoon helping to run a few errands (like purchasing 100 x 2” x 4” timbers!) and then it was back to the house for another very pleasant evening.
16th July 2008 – Berlin.
It was very hot and sunny again today and we spent a lazy morning doing not a lot before going up to the shop to take Jeff and his son Gary out to lunch at a restaurant called ‘Big Peckers’ and, yes, it does have the same connotations over here! Graham and I then went shopping for another suitcase (so that we could get all of our goodies home) before Jeff and Edith took us out to ‘bike night’ at Smitty McGee’s (a bar/restaurant we’ve been to before), it’s a nice ride out and the evening was well attended with around 50/60 bikes turning up. We finished off by heading in to Ocean City itself (very busy) and having an ice cream which was a nice way to finish the evening off especially as it was still warm enough to ride in shorts and T-shirts.
17th July 2008 – Berlin.
It was time to start preparations for going home (unfortunately) so we spent the morning with me doing laundry and packing and Graham washing the trike so that it was clean and ready to go into the showroom where it will be stored and used as a display model. The rest of the day was spent at the shop and the evening at ‘home’ (after going out for a nice Mexican meal).
18th July 2008 – Berlin to BWI and homeward.
We’d decided to get a rental car for the return journey to the airport as it’s cheaper than the local shuttle (around $55 including gas) and a lot less hassle than Jeff having to make a round trip of 240 miles to take us up there. As the rental company wasn’t due to collect us until around 12:00 we made ourselves useful by changing the bed we’d used and washing the towels etc. Once we had the car we loaded up and went down to the shop to take Jeff and Edith out to lunch before saying our goodbyes and leaving. The journey to the airport was okay (not exactly a pretty route) and we did the usual with me dropping Graham and the luggage at departures and then taking the car back, we were checked in by 18:00 and on our way by 21:30. Total mileage 8959.
19th July 2008 – Back to Heathrow and home.
The flight was okay and we both managed to get a little sleep (but it was a little). We’d arranged for a taxi to collect us at Heathrow and the driver was there waiting for us when we came through customs so, after a typically tedious run around the M25, we were home by 12:00.
Where next ?