What a beautiful place Pennsylvania is if you find the right back roads. Big valleys with still working farms and small towns with brick storefronts and sidewalks. Pennsylvania always confuses me because parts are not so attractive and parts are more urban and parts are run down, but today we found the pretty parts. The temperature was wonderful in the morning and got a little steamy mid-afternoon (and then it rained on us for the last 15 minutes of the day).
We left Cumberland MD after a long conversation with "the most interesting old guy on earth", or so it seemed. He was a wonder, spry 84 year old who lost his wife some years back but had a long time girlfriend. He was a skier from way back and now had ski and bike shops, has a BMW R100 (classic 1980s bike), which he was riding today, raised sheep, and was Irish (his grandfather moved here in the 1920's. He told us about Grand Canyon PA which we hope to visit tomorrow.
We first stopped at the new(ish) memorial to Flight 93 that crashed in a field near Shanksville, PA. It was one of the 9/11 planes and the story goes that the crew overwhelmed the terrorists and the plane nose-dived at 500+ mph into the ground. They have a simple memorial setup there. Kinda disturbing.
After that we went east on Rt30 which is the Lincoln Highway that used to be one of the coast to coast roads. We found a little road, Rt26 which took us through some beautiful, twisty back roads and was the high light of the day. I counted the Trump and Hillary lawn signs today and it was 44 Trump signs to zero (0) Hillary signs, about the same as yesterday. So looks like Trump is looking good down here.
We rode through State College PA, home of Penn State, which is a huge college town. Lots of college kids out enjoying the sun, and I must admit, it would be nice to be 20 again, playing Frisbee with the coeds. Now there is no temptation for us Miller boys because we were wise enough to marry beautiful women who encourage our pursuits. They understand our joy of motorcycle adventures, our hobbies, expensive tractor a attachments and motorcycle accessories. Heck, we would not be surprised a bit if they might encourage us to buy, say, a new motorcycle, because they understand us. That is what true love is all about after all.
After State College, we hit the highway and headed for our end destination, Williamsport, PA. We had to stop and put our rain gear on and got a pretty good shower the last little bit. We got a room and then off to a burger / beer place a short walk away.
Another great day. One or two more and we will be home, so no idea where we are going tomorrow.
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