Weds Sep 10 - Marion PA to Vernon VT

A big storm is headed east so we decided to get to Vermont before it overtook us in a day or so. The Iowa folks had no options but to ride west until it started raining and then stop and hole up. Weird thing with these retired folks, is they don't really mind. This trip seeing all these relaxed, laid back retired folks has been a bad influence on me. So far everyone thinks I am the older brother, which tells me the stress of work is aging me fast, or the laid back retired life is making my brother younger.
  So a couple more "nowhere to nowhere" roads that were empty and smooth until we clip the lower end of Cayuga Lake. Some vineyards, and a bit better heeled folks. We stopped in Cortland at the Little Guy trailer dealer. These are the trailers we saw being built by the Amish a couple days ago. They are small enough to pull behind a high mileage car (think Prius or diesel Jetta), but are really high quality, sleep 2, stove, sink, TV radio, air conditioning if you want. Nice birch wood interior. Real class rig. They had a ton there so it was a good place to check out all the models. Would be perfect for Dave and Irene's next big adventure.
Then north until we hit Rt 20 which goes east. We quickly realized that this is the Rt 20 that was build in the early 1900's and it goes from Boston to Oregon. It is a federal highway and pokes along beside Rt 90. SSo there is not much traffic on it because the interstate is next to it. And no trucks to mix it up with. And the added bonus of lots of old store fronts, refurbished diners, old gas stations, etc. This would be a real interesting way to go coast to coast. My beemer is ready!!

Speaking of my beemer, it proudly rolled over 80,000 miles (woo hoo!). Still runs like new, my old friend of 17 years. So how do I get to 100,000? Hmmmm. I think I have some ideas.
So we rolled into Dave's garage at 8pm after another lovely day. I did 2694 miles from my house to my house on this trip. Can't wait for the next one.

Tues Sep 9 - Winchester VA to Mansfield PA

This is what happens when you wait a couple days to write this stuff. Bad enough I have to ask Dave where we stayed last night, say nothing of 2 nights ago.
Today was a long haul up route 522. This goes due north through that part of the east where glaciers scored long valleys and ridges. The roads just gotta go up the valley until they can't stand it anymore and then they hop over the top of one of the ridges. So we start in Virginia and then into West "by God" Virginia (for at least the 4th time!) and then across Maryland. Maryland is so skinny here, you could hold your breath at the southern border and not have to breath again until you hit the norther border. Seriously, it's about 3 miles. And like I said, West Virginia must be star shaped because it just keep sucking us back in.
So the Pennsylvania where the Amish hide out. They seem to pick areas big enough and flat enough and fertile enough to create stand alone communities. This after all is one of the goals, to create a community. I can't image a lone Amish family living without like-minded neighbors. You know you are not in touristy areas when the Amish scramble in the buggy to wave at motorcycles.
Something I think we have to be careful of is trusting the state map, or any map for that matter, when they call a route "scenic". Sometimes it is, but many times these get loaded with other tourists taking the scenic route and hence the route filling with shops to sell stuff to the tourists, then billboards, then.. So your best bet is take the route that doesn't connect anything with anything, or set Daves GPS to "no highways", "shortest route", and "no gravel roads with grass growing in the middle". If only that last one existed.
End of the day, Dave punches up a hotel and it leads us to Mansfield PA. Damned if this isn't the same town with the same hotel we stayed in last spring, and Dave and his wife Irene stayed in last year on their cross country trip. Must be magnetic. Bad enough we have traveled every road in Vermont umty ump times, but now PA and WV (Ohio is next) are giving us repeats. Gotta get further west..
The Comfort Inn was full of gas drillers (because they have a lounge, we are sure) so we found another place across the valley. Chatted up 4 folks from Iowa (on 3 Harleys) who were heading home (west). They had gone to Delaware and Rhode Island to complete the lower 48 states. Those Iowa folks sure are friendly. They looked like normal retired folks in the restaurant the night before, but were downright bad-ass the next morning in their leathers and dew-rags. If only BMW made dew-rags. Here is my brother with and without a dew-rag. OK ladies, which one would you ride into the sunset with?

Monday Sep 8 - Marietta OH to Winchester VA

Over cast most of the day. The Super 8 motel was as super as Super 8 motels get. Bad JuJu day for Dave as he blew his low beam bulb, had starter issues and his rain gear zipper quit zipping. But once again we out-McGuiver'd McGuiver (ask your parents), and managed to prevail. I actually just replaced my headlight a couple weeks ago and just like cars, they do blow out. Motorcycles, like most cars these days run with the headlight on day and night. So every 12K miles or so you replace them. I noticed it gone this morning so we stopped in Clarksburg (we think) and got a coffee at he local McD's (actually great coffee and free wifi). Ex Boy Scout Dave carries a spare (Be Prepared!). We were the center of attention with the local guys who had bikes (and apparently no jobs) and once again the Vermont tags got their attention. One of them (I'll call him Buddy since we never got his name) was our instant best friend and regaled us with stories about his Honda motorcycle, home brew repairs, etc. He and the other 3 or 4 guys all knew each other and peppered us with questions. We finished our coffee and Buddy followed us out to check out the bikes and help replace the headlight. Well somehow a 3 minute job turned into and hour+ job. Buddy was getting tools from his truck and was actually very helpful. Long and short, the BMW headlight mount had a broken retaining thingie which meant we could not get it back together. Working down inside the handlebars is like doing a tonsillectomy with mittens on (I would imagine). This is when you ask the neighbors 7 year old to reach in and hold something because he has skinny little arms. So we gave up and Dave rode with the high beam on the rest of the day. We decided to cross West (god damn) Virginia on Rt 50 which goes directly east. Last spring we crossed it 50 miles south on Rt 33. Rt 50 was busy for an hour or so, but then was fairly empty the rest of the way. If you look at a topo map, this area looks like a dragon scraped trenches north to south so we spent the day climbing into and out of those trenches. We hit 3100 ft at one point and then plunged down into the next trench with truck brake check stations, 15 mph hairpin turns and then up the other side to the top of the next ridge. Lots of windmills (yea!), but like most everyplace we go in WV, a lot of tough luck looking hollows and towns. Quite a bit of logging here, but not much else. We did see gas drilling, but our new friends told us they do not hire West Virginians, but are all out of state. So the scare we had was that Dave's bike was not starting sometimes. We think it may be the kick stand switch but it could be he starter switch. A friend of ours had to replace the starter switch so stay tuned. We may start parking on hills just in case. We do not have a Starksboro straight hitch (piece of rope) so will have to watch it.
We looked up the headlight issue and it is a known problem with these. But we worked on it tonight and it is all good and Dave should have a nice new headlight tomorrow.
Nice fast smooth day with just an hour or so of very light rain. North tomorrow..

Sunday Sep 7 - Carollton Ky to Marietta OH

I was not wanting to head into the "woods" again and instead wanted more flat open country, even if it meant looking at more corn and soy. We rode along the Ohio River, which is a very very big river right here. Yesterday and this morning we saw large barges going up and down the river. People tend to build their houses a ways away so it must flood from time to time. These rivers were and still are shipping lanes for all kinds of stuff. Coal, sand, containers, etc. And while there are bridges, they are pretty intentional since it is pretty wide and those boats have to go under them. Last night we dropped a lot of elevation when we came down into the river valley off the plain and it seems that on the south side of the river (Kentucky), it is now hilly, not flat. This was the case this morning as we wiggled all over on small roads trying to get back up to Ohio. It was fun, but we were getting close to Cincinnati (congestion) so we jumped the highway and went north right up to and then around the city. The Cincinnati skyline is nice and it really is a small city. Kinda cute actually. Not sure why, but there was a lot of traffic for a Sunday so north until we go to a road that Dave found described as "scenic". Now we were back on the plains above the river with good old soy and corn fields. The towns got smaller and smaller (and emptier and emptier) as we went east. We had lunch in a small place in ?? town and the waitress picked on us because we did not know what "cooney sauce" was. She brought out some and it is chili-dog sauce and we guessed she meant "coney dog" sauce (which I still have not heard of). She then asked if I knew what a BLT was which I admitted I did. Someone has to get out more..
I talked up a local farmer about how this corn and soy was harvested and he said they chop some of the corn for feed, but most is left to get as dry on the stalk as possible, the "shelled" and stored in he big steel silo's we see everywhere. Soy is harvested and the "beans" are shelled from their pods and also stored. They blow air in the bottom of the silos so further dry it and ship it over the winter depending on where the prices were. One woman told us the farmers are all hurting this season because the prices are down (corn is $3 instead of $5).

Dave found this amazing set of roads through an area called Hocking Hills, where people fed up with the flat plains can come see what trees and hills look like and motorcycle riders can make their tires round again. There were very few people on the roads todays and a lot of them were motorcycles anyway.. Amazing twists and turns, roller coaster stuff, and smooth pavement. We kept saying that it was like they stole a piece of twisty West Virginia and put it in the middle of Ohio.
We saw a few places growing tobacco. It looks like giant spinach with big broad leaves. I am guessing it has little commercial value since we did not see much growing, but we did see some plots and some bunches cut and drying. There are still some old tobacco barns here and there. Twisted all afternoon and ended up in Marietta OH, where we realized we had been to and stayed at on a previous years trip. Probably same motel. Another perfect day.

Sat-Sep 6 - Lima OH to Carollton, KY via Indiana

We "done good" yesterday by driving into the storm. It poured late last night and this morning it was grey, but no rain. We decided to keep pushing west and then start a swing south.
Route 81 from Lima is a small 2 laner that got us to Indiana in an hour or so. Corn and soy, or soy and corn, take your pick. They seem to always alternate the corn and soy fields side by side so we are assuming it has to do with crop rotation and also reducing cross pollination of different seed type (but I am a computer guy and Dave is a power guy so what do we know?).
I love the open fields from horizon to horizon, probably because I have spent 50+ years staring at trees. The roads go either east-west or north south. So it is nearly impossible to get lost (despite my best efforts..).
I should have been a history or geography major so I could understand the changes with time of this area. I can guess (remember, engineer) that there used to be small farms that hacked a living from the wilderness followed by small towns with division of labor, followed by bigger agriculture feeding the cities via rail followed by megafarms consolidating all the smaller farms followed by what ever comes next.
We saw a lot of abandoned houses, churches and barns which would bear out the idea of little farms getting gobbled up. Also the small towns in eastern Indiana have a lot of empty, dusty store fronts. I must say that if you stop anywhere to look at a map, anyone walking by will ask if you need help. That friendly mid-westerner myth seems to be real because everyone is very helpful.
We turned south and followed Rt 1 until we hit one of two detours (which take you half way to California and back by the way). Since everything is square, a detour can only mean you are going a long way out of your way. I bet these little starving towns hate detours around their towns!
It sort of spit rain drops all day so we wore the rain stuff pretty much all day. It was cool so it was ok. Not like yesterday when it was 90 degrees and wearing rain gear was like donning a sweat suit.
We crossed the Ohio River and into Kentucky, and like every time we cross into Kentucky, things change, and not for the better as far as economic well being. (Still way better than West Virginia).

We found the "Hotel Chernobyl" which was an abandoned Comfort Inn, but a newer one was built right behind it (and we had no rubles to pay anyway "Comrade"..). Great Mexican restaurant (unlike the other night) and back to bed. This vacation stuff is exhausting.
I think we may go back up on the fertile plains of Ohio tomorrow since we have been through the Appalachian hills many times. We really need to get "way out west" somehow, but not this trip.

Friday Sep 5 - Millersburg OH to Lima OH

Today was the Little Guy factory tour and I love visiting manufacturing plants where they build stuff. Today was cool for a couple reasons. First, the Amish are building these small travel trailers and being one to instantly generalize, the idea of Amish doing anything but driving teams of mules across bucolic meadows on sunny summer afternoons with cute bonneted (word?) children skipping along beside intrigues me. But Amish with nail guns? The second reason is that for 30 years I have designed products and seen them go into manufacturing and so understand how it works. The third, and completely unfair reason is that I was curious if they were doing "lean manufacturing" like Toyota (cue heavens parting and choruses of lean sensei's singing hallelujah), who are the gods of lean. My brother and I toured the Toyota plant in Kentucky this spring and saw how the big boys do it (and it is inspiring).
So for me today was Toyota in one corner of the ring (visualize smiling sumo wrestler guy), and Amos Oder (gotta feed the 'orse, yah) in the other corner to duke it out for the Shingo Prize (annual prize for most lean company).

What we found were not very lean folks, but a very family or maybe community oriented company making really high quality products. Amish men (bearded and not) and women (long modest dresses and caps, no beards) were working at the making and assembling of these small trailers. The trailers were NOT pulled through the factory with Donkeys as my brother expected. The guy giving the tour was an older man, very open and patient with our small group of 7 people. He was indeed the classic Amish guy. They make everything but the metal parts (steel frames and aluminum sub-assemblies) and they can make about 10 per day. Like Toyota (and this may be the only thing) they have a tight, small 3 dimensional plant where people upstairs make sub-assemblies and feed them downstairs to the main lines (they have 2 lines). Amos (I did not actually catch his name but he looks like and Amos) showed us their new building across the valley that was many times bigger than where they are now (they hope to move by New Years). They have grown so fast, they are packed like sardines in their current space, and I smiled, remembering NRG Systems just before moving into the "big house", when we were also packed tight in a little metal, poorly insulated box. But some of my best memories were those "tight times" working with "our family". So great tour and wonderful folks (and no donkeys).
So we next decided to go find the genealogy center that a guy named Franklin Miller started in Mt Vernon. Rumor has it he spent 70 years doing Miller genealogy and wrote a few books. So off to Mt Vernon, but we went way south to enjoy more Amish farms in the valleys, and then west on Rt 39, which the map says was "scenic" which was just sort of ok. At Mt Vernon we found the genealogy center but it was only open 2 days a week, and today was not one of those days. So heck with that and headed west to push as far west under the incoming storm (hoping it would go over us tonight). But I then thought that we should go back and check the Mt Vernon library we visited last spring to see if maybe they had Franklin's book. The good news was, they indeed had a copy, the bad news was that all those Millers were German and not related in any way shape or form to us.

So, back on the road west to the storm. We stopped for lunch at a really strange diner (that served breakfast all day by the way), where the "dining room" had not a single window in it, the large table next to us had 6 or 7 guys playing poker (for money), and you pay the bill in cash, no receipt and no meals tax. You figure it out??
And hour or 2 later we saw the storm, got "spit on" by the clouds, put our rain gear on, sun back out, rain gear off, then more rain, rain gear back on, then a lot of rain, then decided to quit for the day in Lima OH. Hotel is ok, but there is some kind of Elks gathering, and it's Friday night, and they sell beer here, so it may be a noisy night. Showers to knock the sweat off and cool off, then dinner and bed.
In the morning we see where we stand with the rain. Bikes are running perfectly and can't wait for more road tomorrow. Indiana here we come (I think).

Thursday Sep 4 - Titusville PA to Millersburg OH

Genius is hard to suppress as we discovered a new way to make those tasty breakfast sandwiches. Invention is a Miller curse passed down from our dad. This one is for you dad.
We had a little dew on the bikes which is perfect for soaking bugs on the windshields. Weather guy says beautiful day and he did not disappoint. The great thing with post Labor Day is there is no traffic. We pretty much have the roads to ourselves. And 90% of the roads down here are smooth. My old bike LOVES moving at 55mph on 2 lane roads. You can barely hear it running or feel any vibration at that speed. We drove through the oil valley where all the oil was discovered by Edwin Drake in the mid 1800's. This area is trying to cash in on it and has some nice parks and rec areas. But it looks like all that oil wealth left with Drake. There are small oil pumpers here and there, but not too much going on. We decided to put some miles in and skip Canton. So interstate 80 to mix it up with the big rigs (who are much better drivers than the cars), past Youngstown and then south on the first exit after the busy Rt80 & Rt76 intersection. This is the secret to both getting places and enjoying the locals. Take the interstate when you get to congested areas and then get at least 30 miles away from the interstate after that. It is magical to just leave the highway and drive just a little way away. All the towns get small, people slow down, and folks stop to chat. So we turned off the GPS and I used just the new compass I attached to my right mirror and headed south and west, alternately. Every little side road is paved and we had a fun morning doing "roller coaster" rides over little knolls and valleys. The further we got into Ohio, the more square it got and the more farms there were. We noted that many places here are just like Vermont as far as terrain and vegetation.
We stopped for lunch at a place called the Frontier in Hartville where everybody appeared to be retired (even the waitresses) and everybody watched us come in (something new going on in town?). Breakfast all day joint which is always a good sign. After that we got completely lost (and the map is by no means correct because we bobbed and weaved so much).

So we stopped to check the map in Dover and accross the road was a sign saying "Gas Pump Heaven Museum". We stopped in and got the 1/2 hour tour of lots of restored gas pumps by the owner. He retired from a job at the local credit union and had previously restored a couple gas pumps at home. Being married ourselves, we can imagine the sequence of events that got him booted from his home hobby to this place. Pretty neat and if you are into 40s to 60s memorabilia, this place is for you. It's all about passion, and I love running into guys like this who light up when they show us all the restored stuff he has collected. Now this is a guy who runs to the mailbox to intercept the credit card statements before his wife sees them..

And he has a full size Bob's Big Boy character. Must of sent the missus to her sisters for a couple days when that bad boy was delivered.
So we made it to Sugar Creek where the trailer place was but decided to finish the day at Millersburg OH and made an appointment to get the factory tour in the morning.
Chatted up a guy who works in a door factory that invited us for a tour as well. He was a Miller and we had a relative move here in 1814 so..
So before ending the day we turned onto a small sort of 2 lane side road and cruised through a remote Amish valley. These Amish rode real bicycles with inflatable tires so maybe the rules have changed. (Dave read tonight that there are a dozen or so variations of Amish and Mennonites and they each have different guidelines and rules). Oh yea, that glaze on the road from the horses is slippery, and must be really slippery when it rains so motorcycle riders beware.
Checked in to the motel and then a not so great Mexican place for dinner. Laundry tonight and bed. Hot tomorrow and maybe a few afternoon sprinkles. Trailer factory tour tomorrow!!

Weds Sep 3 Oswego NY to Titusville PA

Up fairly eary and on the bikes by 7. Many thanks to Sandy for putting us up. Herb, you are one lucky guy!!
We plugged Ginnie's address in Dave's GPS and it took us on all the back roads in the early clearing fog along the Lake. Perfect day all day, not too hot, not too cold and lots of sun. This is the fruit belt along the lake and we saw every color, shape and size of apple you could image. Lots of peaches as well. They are also famous for cherries through here, but we did not see them (or more likely did not know what we were looking for). We are used to apples and our cousins in Dummerston grow peaches (most years), but the only cherries we grow in Vermont are picked at Hannafords or Shaws. We found Ginnie's (I had not been there for xx years), and she had a nice breakfast spread for us. We noted later that we need to develop more connections like these and just go from one to the next in a big circle (eat, sleep, repeat). Always great to see Ginnie. I am realizing I need to stop hanging out with all these just retired people. They are all so happy ( too damn happy if you ask me) being retired and yet so busy. I guess I need to cultivate some overworked, miserable friends to balance it out.
We said our goodbyes (Thanks Ginnie!!) and decided to see if we could score a free cup of coffee at Dave's sister-in-law's in Geneva NY. But alas, it was not to be as they were not around so we got McDonald's coffee (excuse me, half price "senior" coffee (these retired folks get all the perks..)).
We headed south from Geneva through beautiful vineyards and from Watkins Glenn (the race car town) and just sorta wiggled along the south east corner of NY state. This part of NY has lots of rolling green hills with working farms, corn, soy (I think), and the occasional Amish families clop clop clopping by (with cans of gasoline in the back of their buggies??). Gotta work on this Amish rule system again. We crossed into Pennsylvania (home of the PennDOT indians) and rode through and around the Allegheny National Forest. The roads are smooth and empty and we poked along from 2 laner to 2 laner all afternoon. Pennsylvania seems to me so much more forested that NY just above it. More like scruffy Maine woods that rolling farmland. We decided to end the day at Titusville were Drake struck oil in 1859. Walked into town to a nice brew-pub, back to the hotel and here I am typing this out on painfully slow wifi. So tomorrow we go ???

Tues-Sep 2, 2014 Starksboro VT to Oswego NY

My brother Dave drove up yesterday and stayed overnight. Another completely unplanned trip. The only goal is to get a factory tour of the Little Guy Trailer company somewhere in Ohio. These are small, aerodynamic travel trailers Dave is looking at for his next cross country trip (not on a motorcycle which makes no sense to me?). So it's not like we have no goals at all!! Anyway, I wanted to stop and see Deb's dad and step mom Herb and Sandy in Oswego NY so we decided to go a route I don't think either of us have been. We stopped for breakfast in Richmond VT and then took the highway to the islands to catch the ferry to Plattsburg, NY. Very warm day, but overcast so perfect riding day. The weather guys predicted sprinkles but we rode all except the last 30 minutes or so without any rain, and then just enough to put the Frogg Toggs on.

Watched a beautiful sunset over Lake Ontario (stole this picture from Chris Richmonds Facebbok post, thanks Chris (oh crap he is a lawyer)..) and caught up with Deb's folks. My brother behaved better than expected so we had a great visit. Deb's Aunt Ginny invited us down for breakfast the next morning so we got caught up with Sandy and Herb then turned the fans on (hot night, but perfect with fans), then off to bed. Read about 2 sentences of a new book (ok maybe one) and crashed.

Nice to be on the road again..

May 26 - Going Home

So the picture is of my great grandfather, Joseph Arms Miller, and it probably doesn't belong in this blog of our motorcycle trip, but on the last leg home, I met up with my cousin Sue and we spent a couple hours trying to figure out how to collect all the Miller family pictures, diaries, stories, etc together so more of us Millers can get access to them and help identify who is who in the various pictures floating around out there. My sister Martha passed away this spring and a lot of my family information went with her. I have boxes full of writings and clippings she gave me before she died but I am new to family genealogy and Sue has been at it a while. I think we will be getting together again soon. Dave and I found a long lost cousin James out in Ohio, who moved out there is 1813, but for the most part, all of our people stayed around Vermont, so we should be able to put a lot of this together.

I headed north and just did the interstate thing and got home in a few hours. My odometer shows I went 2609 miles on this trip. My son Jacob is home from New Mexico so I want to spend a couple days with him before he goes back. We went to friends for a Memorial Day barbecue and then home.
So Dave and I are scheming another trip. Somehow we need to get way out west. Stay tuned!!

May 25 - Mandsfield PA to Vernon VT

Dave called Rene and they realized this Motel in Mansfield is the same one they stayed in a year ago and we ate in the same restaurant they did last night. A few bikers (Harleys of course, and Beemers, and an old GoldWing 1100 with 98K on the clock). This entire trip we seem to share motels with drill crews. There is a tremendous amount of natural gas drilling in these states. These guys put a lot of hours in so leave early in the morning and come in at different times at the end of the day. I am guessing they work weekends. We also passed several compressor stations, many with Duke Energy on their signs. As best we could guess, these pressurize the gas lines and burn some of the gass in turbines that run the compressors.

There are small oil derricks all over the states we visited. Some are rusted into the ground having pumped their last decades ago, Some are slowly pumping and some look like they may still be working, but are not running, maybe on timers so they pump once a day or something. You see them in little mountain valleys, in swamps, in the middle of fields so they appear to provide "extra" income for someone, or used to. We also saw lots of beautiful wind turbines slowly turning away providing electricity forever going forward.
We decided to do one big push and get back to Vernon. We swapped bikes for a couple hours. Dave's bike has more power and is lighter and is designed for on road, but can also easily do back roads. His is one of the most popular beemers and you see them climbing over mountains on back roads and loaded with gear on long highway trips as well. My bike is 17 years old and still runs like new. I have had it since it was new so it is like an old comfortable shoe. BMW makes really reliable bikes that last forever. My bike weights 621 lbs and Dave's weighs 504 pounds. I like the lighter feel of his bike but I like my nice wide seat (for my nice wide behind).
Ran into a Gold Wind guy who has been going to Americade in Lake George NY since it started. He said it used to be a nice small polite Gold Wing event and then "those Harley guys" took it over. I have found that most Harley guys are great and are secretly office jocks who don leather on the weekends. Harley guys seem to fall in 2 groups. The clean ones (nicely stitched leathers, clean bikes and an Irish Spring smell about them) and the real ones (a little too tan with a few too many tatoos and more a high school football team locker room smell). Both have bikes that are way too loud. Oh yea, the smelly guys have the babes, go figure?
We have been this last stretch so many times, from the Catskills to Vernon, that it is sort of auto pilot, but western Mass still is nice, especially this time of year. Just missed some rain and landed back in Dave's garage. We had pickled eggs, cold beer and a nice supper. Hot showers and off to bed. Dave said he clocked 2200 miles so not bad for 9 days on the road. Tomorrow I meet our cousin Sue to talk genealogy and then I head home.

May 24- Elkin WV to Mansfield PA

What a beautiful day. West Virginia has some very remote, beautiful twisty smooth paved roads that glide through lush green valleys. The people seem not too well off here, but they live in a beautiful place. The place we stayed last night was a nice place, but was busted last year because someone set up a meth lab in one of the rooms. So it is not too popular and does not rent to anyone living nearby. So it was cheap and not crowded.
We headed east up over ridges and down into adjacent valleys. If you look at a topo map of this part of West Virginia and north into PA, it looks like someone (glaciers no doubt) scraped their fingernails in a curve down through here, leaving flat bottomed valleys divided by mountain ridges. There are not many people here so the roads are not busy and the towns are small and far between. Dave's GPS usually takes us on interesting excursions but today was a doozy. We spent an hour or 2 on a goat path over a mountain range, complete with washed out roads and lots of pretty good sized rocks and gravel. The only people up here were a few campers on 4-wheelers that looked pretty surprised these 700 lb road bikes were picking their way over these hills. Once back on terra-firma (asphalt), he set it to "fastest way" so we stayed on pavement the rest of the afternoon. The towns up here in rural PA as tiny so not much for motels. We hit some rain for a bit, donned our rain gear, and bolted for Mansfield, where here are lots of sleeping options. Quick dinner and straight to bed after wrestling those bikes on the dirt roads. Oh yea, we saw the most vivid rainbows (double no less) coming into Mansfield tonight. Wonderful day.

May 24 - Dear Mr Garmin

Dear Mr Garmin,
I am writing to ask about the details of warranty work as well as warn you of what I believe is a defect in your Zumo product. My brother and I ride our motorcycles cross country and have used your fine product for several years. Today, however, something unusual happened. At the end of the day today, my brother, who owns and uses your fine product, stopped to "use the facilities", while I stayed with the bikes. When he returned we found the Zuma gone from his motorcycle and, incredibly, we found it laying on the ground, broken, in front of a concrete wall, in what I can only assume was a case of "Spontaneous Self Destruction". I did not see anyone go near it (really), and must have turned away for an instant (I really did not hear or see anything, really). After discussing this unfortunate incident (which I still have no idea how it happened, really), and in piecing together the days events, we have some theories. It may have started earlier when my brother enabled the "shortest distance" option on your fine product. We had noticed that it sometimes took us a wee bit off the "main roads". My brothers bike is designed for more "off road" type travel while my bike is meant for strictly "on road" riding. Today your fine product suggested we turn onto what at first appeared to be a wonderful smooth paved road, with painted lines, which is certainly within the specifications of my "on road" motorcycle. The road narrowed and the painted lines disappeared, (again, certainly acceptable). The Zuma next suggested a road that while at some time in the past was paved, had since become a sort of hybrid paved/loose sand road. After several miles this turned to all sand/dirt followed by course gravel (< 3 cm) which is definitely not withing the specification of my motorcycle. It was at this point we met 2 gentlemen in the deep woods on this now well washed out, gravel (> 3cm) road who introduced themselves as U.R. Trespassing and U.R. SoDead, (Mr So Dead certainly did not look of Asian descent and I also though it odd they shared the same first 2 initials). When I saw the shirt bearing the GonnaKill U, what I trust is a local trade school specializing in the mechanical sciences, judging from the number of finely crafted firearms these gentlemen seemed to be carrying, I inquired if they belonged to any school sports team, as they looked very muscular, despite the obvious scars. With this, they seemed to hurry off to their cabin, at which point we decided to continue our dubious trip down the sorry roads your fine product had suggested we take. My suspicions about Mr Trespassing and Mr SoDead being athletes was validated when I saw them running behind us, shooting while they ran, obviously training for some sort of biathlon. They waved us on with their fists (in obvious pride at their sport) as we proceeded the many miles down the gravel road, as instructed by your Zuma product.
So I would first ask what the cost to repair the broken Zuma (which I again have no clue how it got broken, really), and would also like to point out that the recommended roads your product sent us on most definitely do not meet the acceptable road specification for at least my motorcycle and I would presume several others. A disclaimer should surely be in order.
  Yours truly (and dusty dirty and tired),
    John and Dave

May 23-Ashland KY to Elkins WV

Not many folks in the motel last night, I am guessing because of the train noise but we both slept great. Our farm growing up had a train track nearby and it actually brought some nice memories back. Plus my hearing is not so great, so all in all a good nights sleep, and the price was right. The continental breakfast was more a territorial breakfast and Dave noticed one of the egg omelet things had a bite out of it, so it was a pretty light breakfast. We decided to cross the river into West Virginia and follow Rt 2 up, but somehow we ended up and hour later in Ohio. So GPS to the rescue and it took us cross-lots across West Virginia. We pretty much followed Rt 33 all the way, which makes it real easy. The roads were in good shape but I bet my tires are triangle shaped tonight from all the turning. You have to be on your toes, or rather brakes, because some of the turns are not labelled and quite honestly, there were so many, you stop looking at the turn signs which tell you the turn is a 25, 35, 45 MPH turn. But beautiful sunny cooler day, perfect for doing this. We had lunch at a real local place and then more twisting and turning all afternoon. We called ahead to Elkin WV for a motel and the first 2 were full. We realized that it is Memorial Day weekend so we tried another that suspiciously had plenty of rooms. It turns out, this place is a pretty nice motel but some shady dealings got into the local papers so they are not too popular. We will report back in the morning (we hope). Pretty tired tonight from turn, turn, turning all day. Good stuff!!

May 22 - Toyota Tour - Georgetown KY to Ashland KY (Stone Throw from WV)

The hotel last night was sooo nice, they throw a guest party on Weds night with free beer and nibbly things and trivia. The woman running it was of course over the top getting perfect strangers to participate, but, like all those talented folks who do that stuff, she had us all wracking our brains to remember who the kid in Lost In Space was and who played the part (my brother knew, smarty pants). It was touch and go with the plant tour. We did so much bobbing and weaving yesterday that we got into town too late for the tour, and then found out you need reservations. (Can anyone say poor planning). But we just rode up there anyway and another barrier appeared as we hit the parking. The dreaded tour bus full of blue hairs just unloading and pouring into the tour center like rats into Columbus' ship. So we pretended to be on the tour and shuffled in with the poly clad masses. Being Ellwyn's boys we of course couldn't lie so told the nice lady we were just smelly motorcyclists from Vermont hoping to get a tour. We were wait listed, behind the geezers, but lo and behold a gregarious guy with Toyota attire got us on the last shuttle, and he was great.
Toyota does what is called Lean Manufacturing and they are the kings. And this plant has been doing it since 1988. Bottom line is they make a car in 54 seconds. If any tiny thing is wrong with materials or workmanship, any employee can stop the line so they can determine what caused the problem. This makes problems, even little ones, get fixed really early and quickly.
Today they were making 484 cars on one line per shift (2 shifts per day) and about that many on the other line. So 2000+ cars per day. There is never more than 4 hours worth of materials in the building, which means 700-1000 trucks per day show up and deliver stuff. They start from rolls of steel and truckloads of raw plastic, and end up with cars at the other end. They stamp weld and paint everything and mold almost all the plastic parts right there. Teams of 4 employees and a team leader work at any given station for 2 hours, then switch to another task for 2 hours, then lunch then 2 more 2 hour stints at other tasks. So they do not get bored and the are cross trained on multiple jobs. They play basketball, pool, foozball, etc during breaks to keep them selves moving. Amazing!! And they treat visitors like gold. Everyone waves to the visitors and the culture there is positive and excited. The employees can submit suggestions for improving things and they get payed if the idea gets used. From $20 to $25,000! We asked what idea got the $25K and were told that one guy went home, got a seat out of his boat, welded up a gantry thing so he could rotate in and out of the cars to install the console the whole time sitting down. He got $25K and we saw those seat thingies all over the plant. One employee told us his wife got $10K the first year she worked there for a number of good ideas she had. Awesome culture and great people, all on the same team. Go Toyota.
  So after that we rode back roads through horse country. This area has huge horse farms with giant fenced in estates. These people are also genetically bred to mow their lawns. The whole state loves mowing, Yards, roadsides, whole fields, herringbone patterns, the works. Dave set his GPS to "anything goes, shortest distance" and it got ugly fast. I have not seen darker hollers' or tougher neighborhoods. Single lane paved roads looked like interstates compared to some of the gravel jobs it tried to send us down. The locals in their old  trucks stared at us as they passed us on the way to their Dentu Cream auditions. We finally had to just ignore most of the suggestions and made it to West Virginia at 5:30 or so.

We rode up the east side of the river past the Ashland refinery (the size of a city!), now run by Marathon, past coal stocks being dropped of and shipped to who knows where by endless trains and river barges. Decided to call it a day in Ashland at a motel near the train tracks (had to sign a disclosure saying we knew the trains would make noise all night), got some mexican salads in town, showers and bed.
Great day!!

May 21 - Lancaster OH to Lexington Ky

We grudgingly left our luxury accommodations in Lancaster after the continental breakfast thing, loaded the bikes and headed toward Georgetown KY where Toyota has a plant that makes Camry cars. They have a tour which I am very interested in and so that was the goal. As it turns out, they we were too late to get the tour today, and we may or may not get to go tomorrow, depending on how many other people sign up. But goals are good, so we told Daves GPS we wanted Georgetown, and it obediently got us here. Because the GPS is set for shortest distance, it finds some of the most interesting back roads and side streets, and today it treated us with some really really out of the way, back roads, all of them at least 70% paved. This corner of Ohio gets more rolling as you go east or south since we are heading back toward the Appalachian Mts. Everything is green, the corn is planted (they do no-till planting, which means no plowing, but seeding right over last years corn stubble. Took us a day or two to figure that out but we saw the tiny new corn sprouting between last years rows. There were some roads that you could swear were in Vermont. I have to say, I enjoy the flatter, slightly rolling country we are leaving. The towns are small and self contained and seem healthy and happy. The other thing that became obvious is that over a period of just a few hours, the accents went from good old northern Yankee / Ohio to down south thick y-all accents. Amazing. By the time we crossed into Kentucky, the accents were thick. The other thing we picked up today were horses. This part of Kentucky is rife with big old horse farms with beautiful big estates and fences everywhere.We are just down the road from where the Kentucky Derby is held in Louisville and you can tell that this is big business here. 

We called ahead for a room and the buzz is the big hail storm they had last Wednesday and the one that is just hitting tonight, like right now!!. Should be a stormy night. Tomorrow we have to call to see if we can get a spot at the Toyota plant for the tour.
We are not sure where to go from here on out. I need to be back by next Weds so maybe we will start swinging back northeast. Maybe West Virginia, maybe north back to Ohio. Right now, we are going to watch this storm come in. Big excitement in Ky.

May 20 - Canton OH to Lancaster OH

Actually got a good nights sleep. My head is swollen from out-moteling the master. I promised that tonight we stay in a real chain type hotel. I think we saved enough to stay in the Ritz. So we worked on a "when to not stay somewhere" clue list. Chevy on blocks in the motel parking lot is a bad sign. "No refunds after 5 minutes"is a bad sign. Grey towels is a bad sign. Full sized refrigerator in the room is a bad sign. RotoRooter magnets on above refrigerator is a bad sign. Cars with no plates in the parking lot is a bad sign. Vans with "GO AHEAD AND HIT MY TRUCK SO I CAN TRY OUT MY NEW GUN" stickers is a bad sign. Broken concrete flower pots in front of the lobby is a clue.
Today we asked and found the place where locals get breakfast. Pete's was great. The goal was to find out long lost ancestor who moved from Dummerston in 1814 to Ohio. We started in Millersburg OH and checked the town offices. They very nicely pointed us to the genealogy canter at the Millersburg library. The lovely women there helped us find some basic stuff, but something was not adding up. It turns out there is a "Miller Township" in the next county (Knox) just south of Mt Vernon. They gave us the address of the library over there, which we found, and after an hour of pouring over the obituaries, town history and census books, we hit paydirt with an Ohio Cemetery book. We found a small cemetery listed with James Miller, his wife Sarah and a Henry Miller who was born in "Dunerstin VT" We got the address, punched it into Dave's GPS and half an hour later found a tiny old cemetery in the middle of a field on Miller Road.

The stones were old and hard to read but we found James (the flat one falling over), his wife and one of his children (Dana Miller). But no other Millers. The library had an excerpt saying that the Millers disappeared after 2 generations. So maybe they kept going west, or gold rush, or?? Anyway, we can understand why they moved here. Not a rock anywhere and lots of open farmland. I bet the letters home to Vermont were rubbing in how long the season was and how easy it was to farm.
So we did maybe 150 miles with all the library hopping but it was a neat day. Beautiful weather and bright green rolling farmlands on lost 2 lane paved roads. Stopped early in Lancaster for a "real" hotel. We agreed we could do this for a long long time.

May 19 Towanda PA to Canton OH (365 miles)

Slept late and had coffee and light continental at the motel. A lot of places around here have pickups and there is so much gas drilling (fracking) going on that we assume field guys are staying at these small (cheap) motels. This place was actually pretty nice.
We had perfect weather today, cool enough to warrant a couple layers but never too cold. We found and followed Rt 6 across Pennsylvania, a really wide state and although the official map said it was "scenic", we saw a lot more scenic stuff getting lost on small side roads. Dave put "closest distance" into his GPS and that sucker shoved us down every goat path it could find. Today's goat paths were nicely paved with no traffic. Where is really wigs out is when you go through a medium sized town and it takes you down side alleys and through backyards if it thinks it is 50 feet shorter. Yesterdays goat paths were closer to real goat paths with rough and dirt roads. Our goal was Millersburg OH where some of our ancestors moved back in the early 1800's but we only got to Canton, a half hour short. Found what even Dave thought were the worst motels we had seen and picked the one that did not have the room door stoved in. Only catch is there is no refund after 5 minutes so you have to check the room out quick! No roaches so we found a salad/bbq place and ate something green for a change. Insanely bad wifi so this may or may not post.

May 18 - Vernon VT to Towanda PA

We left Rene's B&B complete with steak dinner, cold beer and breakfast thrown in. Nice chance to catch up and hear about how great retirement is. I am the last brother to yet retire and these guys are making my life miserable. We  went west and south down into western Mass, into New York and crossed the Hudson  in Catskill. Route 23 goes just over the Catskill Park and then caught 30 down through the rolling hills and valleys. The north east part of Pennsylvania is, I hate to say it, almost, but not quite, as pretty as Vermont. They have Maples so we saw a lot of sap lines and old milk bulk tanks in the woods and beside the road. Dave pointed out the local Penndot Indian tribe that instead of operating casinos, does all the road maintenance. He is always quick with this kind of info. Hmmm.
We ended up in Towanda PA at a local motel with a Mexican restaurant attached. So good first day and west to Ohio tomorrow.

I Need a Little Vacation

I need some vacation!!

So my poor brother has had me calling him over and over and hearing, "I can't go next week, how about June", then "Nope good for next week", then, "Nope, not next week". So  things settled in and here I am at my brother Dave's, picking the strawberry seeds from my teeth from Irene's awesome strawberry rhubarb crisp after a couple cold ones on the sunny deck. It is time for some vacation.
My boy came home from New Mexico and we had a chance to catch up before headed south on the beemer and he headed to Maine to see friends in Portland and also visit his sister (and probably return home with a dump truck load worth of her stuff from college). The original plan was to go down last night (Friday) but it poured so we pushed it back a day. I loaded my little bad with a couple days worth of spare clothes, electronical stuff, and the usual rains gear and warm gear. This is so easy now having done this a few times, and as my brother says, "you can buy anything you forget".
Over the mountain to Jonesville, down Rt 2 (potholes with short interruptions of stone (BMW RT's do not like stone), and the interstate to Putney. I stopped at the cemetery Dummerston where we buried my sister Martha a few weeks ago to see if all was well. The grass is coming in and the stone looks good. I'll miss your stories Sis..
The to Vernon on a lovely sunny warm afternoon (VERMONT IS BEAUTIFUL!!). Dave was getting the intercom technology working and after pushing every combination of buttons we could come up with, we got the Bluetooth working so we can chat. "Chicken and Biscuit place at 2 o'clock".
Rough plan is to head to PA and then to Ohio. Off to bed and start the trip in the morning.