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!!