USA4CT - Ride Day 1 - Tour Day 0 - May 29, 2013 - Wed

Start Time: 0600 EDT
Stop Time:1745 EDT
Start Location: Richmond, VA
Stop Location: Newburgh, NY
Lodging: Hampton Inn
Dinner: LongHorn Steakhouse
Miles Traveled Today: 483
Weather: Sunny 80-90


Got up this morning to a beautiful sunny morning in Richmond. Temps were around 65 so my riding jacket felt good starting out. Met Bill this morning at a gas station near US 522 and I 64 at 7 am. That was about 30 minutes from my house. After we did the high fives and asking each other if we were ready to ride, we hit the gas station restroom before hitting the road!!

Ready To Ride!!

We looked at the weather forecast and it showed maybe a few thunderstorms in the northeastern Pennslyvania and New York area for the afternoon, so we decided to just take our time and maybe keep any rain ahead of us. That worked great. No rain, just a few afternoon clouds. Just a beautiful day of motorcycle riding through Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York.

Our first stop was at Mom's Apple Pie Company in downtown Leesburg, VA for a morning break and some great pie and coffee!!

 Our waitress took our picture having our coffee. She was very interested in our motorcycle ride and was from New England too.

 

Of course I had to have the rhubarb pie. Some of the best rhubarb pie anywhere!

I have recently started collecting National Park Passport stamps so I decided where there was an opportunity to "grab" a few on this trip, I would. We visited a very nice park in Maryland, Catoctin Mountain Park near Thurmont. When we pulled in to the visitor center we found a good shady place to park. There were a couple of people outside the visitor center as we walked down. When I went up to the front door, there was a big "CLOSED" sign on the door. I noticed one of the people standing outside had a park ranger uniform on, so I asked her if the visitor center was really closed. She said yes they just recently started closing during the week due to the federal budget cuts. I asked her if there was anywhere else I could get a passport stamp and she promptly said that she could take care of that. She went on to tell me they had all been told not to do any services to the public and don't go out of their way to help, to make sure the public was aware of the budget cuts. She said she didn't think that was right and since she had the key to the building she would get me the stamp for my book. That was so nice of her!! She talked to us for awhile and even told us today was the birthday of John F. Kennedy. The whole Washington DC political situation is such a shame when it effect such good employees as this park ranger and the innocent public!!

Anyway, back to the ride update! Since the visitor center was closed, the normal restrooms were not available, but there were a lot of woods around with big trees. That worked EXCEPT as I was doing what I was doing a damn SNAKE appeared out of nowhere right in front of me (I hate snakes)!!

Needless to say, I lost the urge as I jumped back (also got a little wet!). I took this picture after I jumped back, so you can tell how close I was. There is probably a morale to this story!!

We continued on with a great motorcycle ride on the park road and a great country road to get us back to US15 (the same park ranger recommended this route to us too!!)

Also stopped at Gettysburg, quickly toured the visitor center and got a stamp (It is not closed during the week and didn't see any snakes)

 Arrived at Newburgh, NY and decided to spend the night here, since we have 3 days to get to Madawaska, ME with only about 600 miles to go. We ate at a Longhorn Steakhouse next to the hotel here tonight. Great beer and food, but "saving up" for some great Maine lobster tomorrow!! Again, great day of riding, weather could not have been better, and great company with Bill!